Tennis star Rafael Nadal

Rafael Nadal pulled out of the London Olympics on Thursday due to injury.

40 Parting Thoughts from the 2018 BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells

It's not technically a Grand Slam tournament, the BNP Paribas Open. But it's pretty close. After 12 days in the desert, herewith 40 thoughts—as opposed to our customary 50—from Indian Wells.

• Naomi Osaka has arrived. It’s that simple. Part Haitian, part American, part Japanese and wholly awesome, she won the women’s title beating all manner of opponent by hitting through them. She followed a demolition of top-ranked Simona Halep by routing Daria Kasatkina 6-3, 6-2 in the final for the biggest title of her career—for now, anyway.

• Early in the tournament, a coach who will go nameless claimed to me that there was only one player in the tournament who was unafraid of Roger Federer. He took my drawsheet and circled the name Juan Martin del Potro. Days later, DelPo wins the first Masters 1000 title of his career, taking down the Mighty Federer 6-4, 6-7(8), 7-6(2) in a splendid final.

• This loss in the final will sting. But Federer is the belt that is cinching men’s tennis (all of tennis?) right now. He’s reached an altitude to which no other player has ventured. And, at 36, he is playing some of the best tennis of his career. We can worry about the inevitable transition period that will exist after Federer retires. But for now, enjoy the history being made.

• Daria Kasatkina played a terrific tournament, winning with guile and winning with power; winning in heat and winning in chill; beating players she should beat and those (Carolina Wozniacki, Venus Williams) she perhaps should not. Pity she leaves on a sour note after a lop-sided final because, until then, she was terrific.

• John Isner and Jack Sock won the men’s doubles, beating Bob and Mike Bryan 7-6(4), 7-6(2) in the final.

• Two weeks of Roger Federer and the super-excellent men’s final masked this inconvenient truth: The top five seeds from 2017—Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, Stan Wawrinka, Rafael Nadal and Kei Nishikori—won zero matches in Indian Wells in 2018. Injuries are no joke.

• Venus Williams has not won a title since 2016, but, overall, she’s played some terrific tennis over the past 18 months. Give her the right set of circumstances and this is no farewell tour she’s on.

• Serena Williams did herself proud in return from maternity leave, winning two matches against quality opponents and then falling to Venus in the 29th intra-family battle. Food for thought: if Serena had won this tournament, might it, perversely, have dented her legacy? Had she retuned after 404 days of absence that included childbirth, shown up (understandably) in sub-optimal shape, and taken the trophy, would people not have said, “She has no competition! What does it say about the field that they can’t storm right back like that?” Instead, Serena’s loss suggests that, in the past, the field has been good. She’s simply been better.

• A few of you asked what Serena needs to improve. The obvious answer: her serve. Against Venus she won barely half of her points on serve. She also needs to play herself back into shape. But she ought to be encouraged overall. What was obvious to all: “She’s not there yet, but she ain’t far off.”

• If Serena’s returned answered doubts, the return of another double-digit-Slam winner stoked doubts. Novak Djokovic, a five-time champ here, lost his first match to No. 109 Taro Daniel, capitulating 6-1 in the third set. Nerves played a role. Djokovic’s game was pocked by errors, especially to the backhand, that were uncharacteristic and inexplicable. It was as if Djokovic were playing his first match. And that’s *his* assessment. As I write this, Djokovic is still entered in Miami but perhaps he’d be well served to head back to Monte Carlo, regroup, and rebound on the clay.

• The Rafael Nadal update: he’s at home resting his psoas injury. And we mean resting. He can’t run or golf or fish. He plans to play Davis Cup and then get going on the clay.

• Top of the cap for tournament director, Tommy Haas, who officially became an ATP pensioner last week. While the retirement of 39-year-old athlete—who now must wear long pants to his administrative job—is not exactly a news flash, let the record reflect: Haas is one of only five players to have beaten Federer in the last year.

• Maria Sharapova lost to Naomi Osaka, her third straight defeat. Like so many of her shots, Sharapova simply looked wayward. She didn’t move well. Her balls lacked depth. She didn’t serve well. She may have been dealing with a nagging injury. One of our favorite refrains: tennis careers are not linear functions. That said, you suspect that Sharapova did not expect that her first year back from the doping suspension would be nearly this rocky. After the match she and coach Sven Groeneveld—who remained on the team throughout the 16-month doping suspension—parted ways. Further indication of strange times on Republic of Sharapova.

• This is unpleasant, but here’s a truism of sports: when players return from a doping suspension they are freighted with the additional weight of trying to prove that their previous success did not come on account of cheating. (Anyone who shares my guilty pleasure for MMA knows how often fighters mention this.) It’s hard (dishonest even?) to talk about Sharapova’s comeback and not mention this dimension. Yes, she is playing to restart her career and spin the plot forward. But she is also playing to preserve the past, to validate what came before the suspension. That’s an immense burden to bear.

• I had the good fortune of spending some time with Simona Halep before the event. We’ll do a longer Q/A prior to the French Open. But there is a commendable what-you-see-is-what-you-get to her. Though she’s from Romania, she strikes me as very Midwest. Grounded. Self-reliant. Rigorously honest. No drama. No movie star ambitions. No double talk. She knows she needs to win a major to certify herself. She knows it and she knows she can do it.

• We don't talk much about fashion…who wears what kit and whose dresses and shirts are flattering or unflattering. But a Hall of Famer made this strong point, which is material to tennis. When a player takes the court for a match here—a Grand Slam–caliber event—looking like she just got out of bed, wearing a mismatched outfit and an ill-fitting top, it’s a “tell” to the opponent. That is, she is revealing plenty about her confidence level and her lack of executive function.

• Related topic and take this for what it’s worth…but for the Tennis Channel pregame show, we had a fairly early call time so I was often on-site at 7:00 or 7:30 a.m. The two players I saw most often at that early hour, looking awake and headed to the practice courts: Carolina Garcia and Venus Williams.

• The great unspoken about Indian Wells: the gushing and flattery is completely deserved. It truly is an exceptional sporting event in every respect. But it is not operating under the same economic model and P/L pressures as other events.

• One example among many: it is the rare tournament that, on the eve of the tournament—without buying insurance, I’m told—can add a $1 million bonus for a player winning both singles or doubles. As it turned out no player earned the bonus. Here's hoping we roll it over, Newman-style, and make it $2 million in 2019. For the record, Sam Querrey was the last man to remain eligible.

• By reaching the quarterfinals round, Hyeon Chung overtakes Kei Nishikori as the highest-ranked Asian male. Stop and applaud Nishikori for his longevity. And consider that with Nishikori, Chung (and Naomi Osaka) in the field, tennis ought to get some nice run at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

• Genie Bouchard received a wild card and lost (badly) to Sachia Vickery in round one. We’re long accustomed to players whose profile and popularity and marketing muscle eclipse their on court accomplishments—there’s no rule that popularity ranking must correspond to computer rankings. But Bouchard is well outside the top 100 and eventually these wild cards are going to run out—and so, it seems, are the sponsorships. She got paid by the Bank of White Plains, but the bottom line is that she needs to start winning matches.

• Hard to recall a junior transitioning to the pros more smoothly than Amanda Anisimova has. The 16-year-old from New Jersey won three matches—including a rock-em, sock-em defeat of Petra Kvitova—and will be in the top 150. She has plenty assets but it’s her lacks that might be more impressive. She is completely devoid of awe. You have the feeling she is exactly where she expects to be and no success is surprising to her.

• Long known as Serena’s hitting partner, Sascha Bajin has made a nice transition to coach. He’s now working with Naomi Osaka and has learned that sometimes his duties extend far beyond forehands and backhands. In Osaka’s third-round match, Bajin had to deal with a heckler in the opposing camp who was upsetting his player.

• Taylor Fritz has added the wise head of Paul Annacone to the brain trust. After an eventful stretch—that included becoming a father and dealing with a vexing injury—Fritz is back in the top 75 and arrowing upward. His third round win over Fernando Verdasco—a 7-6 in the third, who-wants-it-more? special—was a vital step Fritz’s evolution.

• Flach played at Southern Illinois, coached at Vanderbilt and was a champion for college tennis…which continues to re-emerge as an advisable option for so many. Add Danielle Collins to the list. The two-time NCAA champion (and graduate) at the University of Virginia had a career breakthrough here beating a sluggish Madison Keys and reaching round four.

• One of the open secrets of tennis: when a management agency owns an event, it uses its discretion over wild cards to the benefit of the players it represents—and uses it as a recruiting sweetener. “Sign with us and we’ll promise you a main draw wild card into the X event.” So it is the IMG-owned Miami Open is flush with IMG clients. Fine. But it’s a bad look when players like No. 360–ranked Mikael Ymer is getting an automatic in to a Masters 1000 event while Frances Tiafoe—No. 64, bright American prospect, winner of an event 30 miles up the road just last month—was denied.

On Thursday, Tiafoe landed in the main draw when Pablo Cuevas withdrew with injury. But I’d argue there’s a good-of-the-sport moral imperative here. This is just a bad look all-around.

• A few of you asked about Sloane Stephens, who looked terrific against Victoria Azarenka and then looked something considerably less than terrific against Daria Kasatkina. My take? Sloane likes tennis but she doesn’t love it. And, as such, her play will always fluctuate.

• I had to leave Indian Wells a few days early to get to New York. The United Airlines gates might as well have been an annex to the players lounge. Sascha Zverev, Tomas Berdych, Dominika Cibulkova. One day you’re a Grand Slam finalist, the next day you’re just another weary traveler trying to figure out your boarding zone. The fate of the individual sport athlete…

• Story to follow: an ATP board seat for a European representative on the player’s side will come open soon. This is a critical vacancy.

• How young is Felix Auger Aliassime? When he was born, both Serena and Venus had already won majors. How good is Felix? Very.

• Were it not for Lucie Safarova’s illness, Bethanie Mattek-Sands would have been ready to play doubles here. The miracles of modern medicine….

• It will be interesting to see if Indian Wells and Miami follow the Grand Slams and reduce the seeds to 16. As it is, 32 seeded-players in a 96-player draw is a lot.

• One of the revelations of the tournament: Caroline Dolehide, a 19-year-old from Illinois who took a wild card and justified it, playing with fearlessness and showing some real variety. She won two matches and then took a set off of Simona Halep. Well done.

• Non-tennis (sort of) but this first person piece by Steve Francis has been in heavy rotation in my world. I was struck by this passage about the end of his career: “I went from selling drugs on the corners in D.C. to the NBA in four years…and now it’s over? It’s a wrap? At 32? I knew it was the end, and that’s some really, really hard s*** to swallow. I don’t care who you are....It took me damn near four years to really accept that I wasn’t gonna play ball anymore. That it was really over. I had some dark days, no question. And I know people were asking, ‘What the hell happened to Steve Francis?’”

We often wonder in tennis why so many players—Marion Bartoli and Vera Zvonareva are new additions—come out of retirement. Francis provides some insight. It’s tough to be in your early 30s when you’re time is up and you’re facing a lot of anticlimax.

• The ultimate draw would have been Federer (or Williams-Williams) and that didn’t happen. But note how many top singles players also entered doubles here. Simona Halep, Dominic Thiem, Grigor Dimitrov, Karolina Pliskova, Victoria Azarenka and Juan Martin del Potro were among those taking a shot at the $1 million singles/doubles bonus.

• We hear that Victoria Azarenka’s custody battle is still a work in progress. But “progress” is an operative phrase. As we write this, she is entered in Miami. We’ll see whether she adds international events to her schedule. A second-round loser here (to Sloane Stephens), Azarenka is 28 and this was just her third event in the last 20 months. We’ve seen (far too) many players miss prime years with injury. But it’s hard to recall a player missing prime years by choice. In this respect, she is to be commended.

• Dave Haggerty, ITF president, spent time at the event explaining the Davis Cup reform proposal and clearing up misconceptions. He joined the SI/Tennis Channel podcast and made his case. No question there are many questions left unanswered. (And the notion that fans will flock in droves to Singapore is—how to put this?—a serious yoga stretch.) But from the “innovate or die” playbook, I don’t see how federations vote this down.

• Thanks for your Tennis Channel mail and know it gets read and passed on when appropriate. Here’s a good rule of thumb that will perhaps clear up confusion. If there’s a big event, odds are good that TC will come on at 10:00 a.m. local with a pregame show (earlier at the U.S. Open) and then pivot to calling matches, which usually start at 11 a.m.

40 Parting Thoughts from the 2018 BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells

It's not technically a Grand Slam tournament, the BNP Paribas Open. But it's pretty close. After 12 days in the desert, herewith 40 thoughts—as opposed to our customary 50—from Indian Wells.

• Naomi Osaka has arrived. It’s that simple. Part Haitian, part American, part Japanese and wholly awesome, she won the women’s title beating all manner of opponent by hitting through them. She followed a demolition of top-ranked Simona Halep by routing Daria Kasatkina 6-3, 6-2 in the final for the biggest title of her career—for now, anyway.

• Early in the tournament, a coach who will go nameless claimed to me that there was only one player in the tournament who was unafraid of Roger Federer. He took my drawsheet and circled the name Juan Martin del Potro. Days later, DelPo wins the first Masters 1000 title of his career, taking down the Mighty Federer 6-4, 6-7(8), 7-6(2) in a splendid final.

• This loss in the final will sting. But Federer is the belt that is cinching men’s tennis (all of tennis?) right now. He’s reached an altitude to which no other player has ventured. And, at 36, he is playing some of the best tennis of his career. We can worry about the inevitable transition period that will exist after Federer retires. But for now, enjoy the history being made.

• Daria Kasatkina played a terrific tournament, winning with guile and winning with power; winning in heat and winning in chill; beating players she should beat and those (Carolina Wozniacki, Venus Williams) she perhaps should not. Pity she leaves on a sour note after a lop-sided final because, until then, she was terrific.

• John Isner and Jack Sock won the men’s doubles, beating Bob and Mike Bryan 7-6(4), 7-6(2) in the final.

• Two weeks of Roger Federer and the super-excellent men’s final masked this inconvenient truth: The top five seeds from 2017—Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, Stan Wawrinka, Rafael Nadal and Kei Nishikori—won zero matches in Indian Wells in 2018. Injuries are no joke.

• Venus Williams has not won a title since 2016, but, overall, she’s played some terrific tennis over the past 18 months. Give her the right set of circumstances and this is no farewell tour she’s on.

• Serena Williams did herself proud in return from maternity leave, winning two matches against quality opponents and then falling to Venus in the 29th intra-family battle. Food for thought: if Serena had won this tournament, might it, perversely, have dented her legacy? Had she retuned after 404 days of absence that included childbirth, shown up (understandably) in sub-optimal shape, and taken the trophy, would people not have said, “She has no competition! What does it say about the field that they can’t storm right back like that?” Instead, Serena’s loss suggests that, in the past, the field has been good. She’s simply been better.

• A few of you asked what Serena needs to improve. The obvious answer: her serve. Against Venus she won barely half of her points on serve. She also needs to play herself back into shape. But she ought to be encouraged overall. What was obvious to all: “She’s not there yet, but she ain’t far off.”

• If Serena’s returned answered doubts, the return of another double-digit-Slam winner stoked doubts. Novak Djokovic, a five-time champ here, lost his first match to No. 109 Taro Daniel, capitulating 6-1 in the third set. Nerves played a role. Djokovic’s game was pocked by errors, especially to the backhand, that were uncharacteristic and inexplicable. It was as if Djokovic were playing his first match. And that’s *his* assessment. As I write this, Djokovic is still entered in Miami but perhaps he’d be well served to head back to Monte Carlo, regroup, and rebound on the clay.

• The Rafael Nadal update: he’s at home resting his psoas injury. And we mean resting. He can’t run or golf or fish. He plans to play Davis Cup and then get going on the clay.

• Top of the cap for tournament director, Tommy Haas, who officially became an ATP pensioner last week. While the retirement of 39-year-old athlete—who now must wear long pants to his administrative job—is not exactly a news flash, let the record reflect: Haas is one of only five players to have beaten Federer in the last year.

• Maria Sharapova lost to Naomi Osaka, her third straight defeat. Like so many of her shots, Sharapova simply looked wayward. She didn’t move well. Her balls lacked depth. She didn’t serve well. She may have been dealing with a nagging injury. One of our favorite refrains: tennis careers are not linear functions. That said, you suspect that Sharapova did not expect that her first year back from the doping suspension would be nearly this rocky. After the match she and coach Sven Groeneveld—who remained on the team throughout the 16-month doping suspension—parted ways. Further indication of strange times on Republic of Sharapova.

• This is unpleasant, but here’s a truism of sports: when players return from a doping suspension they are freighted with the additional weight of trying to prove that their previous success did not come on account of cheating. (Anyone who shares my guilty pleasure for MMA knows how often fighters mention this.) It’s hard (dishonest even?) to talk about Sharapova’s comeback and not mention this dimension. Yes, she is playing to restart her career and spin the plot forward. But she is also playing to preserve the past, to validate what came before the suspension. That’s an immense burden to bear.

• I had the good fortune of spending some time with Simona Halep before the event. We’ll do a longer Q/A prior to the French Open. But there is a commendable what-you-see-is-what-you-get to her. Though she’s from Romania, she strikes me as very Midwest. Grounded. Self-reliant. Rigorously honest. No drama. No movie star ambitions. No double talk. She knows she needs to win a major to certify herself. She knows it and she knows she can do it.

• We don't talk much about fashion…who wears what kit and whose dresses and shirts are flattering or unflattering. But a Hall of Famer made this strong point, which is material to tennis. When a player takes the court for a match here—a Grand Slam–caliber event—looking like she just got out of bed, wearing a mismatched outfit and an ill-fitting top, it’s a “tell” to the opponent. That is, she is revealing plenty about her confidence level and her lack of executive function.

• Related topic and take this for what it’s worth…but for the Tennis Channel pregame show, we had a fairly early call time so I was often on-site at 7:00 or 7:30 a.m. The two players I saw most often at that early hour, looking awake and headed to the practice courts: Carolina Garcia and Venus Williams.

• The great unspoken about Indian Wells: the gushing and flattery is completely deserved. It truly is an exceptional sporting event in every respect. But it is not operating under the same economic model and P/L pressures as other events.

• One example among many: it is the rare tournament that, on the eve of the tournament—without buying insurance, I’m told—can add a $1 million bonus for a player winning both singles or doubles. As it turned out no player earned the bonus. Here's hoping we roll it over, Newman-style, and make it $2 million in 2019. For the record, Sam Querrey was the last man to remain eligible.

• By reaching the quarterfinals round, Hyeon Chung overtakes Kei Nishikori as the highest-ranked Asian male. Stop and applaud Nishikori for his longevity. And consider that with Nishikori, Chung (and Naomi Osaka) in the field, tennis ought to get some nice run at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

• Genie Bouchard received a wild card and lost (badly) to Sachia Vickery in round one. We’re long accustomed to players whose profile and popularity and marketing muscle eclipse their on court accomplishments—there’s no rule that popularity ranking must correspond to computer rankings. But Bouchard is well outside the top 100 and eventually these wild cards are going to run out—and so, it seems, are the sponsorships. She got paid by the Bank of White Plains, but the bottom line is that she needs to start winning matches.

• Hard to recall a junior transitioning to the pros more smoothly than Amanda Anisimova has. The 16-year-old from New Jersey won three matches—including a rock-em, sock-em defeat of Petra Kvitova—and will be in the top 150. She has plenty assets but it’s her lacks that might be more impressive. She is completely devoid of awe. You have the feeling she is exactly where she expects to be and no success is surprising to her.

• Long known as Serena’s hitting partner, Sascha Bajin has made a nice transition to coach. He’s now working with Naomi Osaka and has learned that sometimes his duties extend far beyond forehands and backhands. In Osaka’s third-round match, Bajin had to deal with a heckler in the opposing camp who was upsetting his player.

• Taylor Fritz has added the wise head of Paul Annacone to the brain trust. After an eventful stretch—that included becoming a father and dealing with a vexing injury—Fritz is back in the top 75 and arrowing upward. His third round win over Fernando Verdasco—a 7-6 in the third, who-wants-it-more? special—was a vital step Fritz’s evolution.

• Flach played at Southern Illinois, coached at Vanderbilt and was a champion for college tennis…which continues to re-emerge as an advisable option for so many. Add Danielle Collins to the list. The two-time NCAA champion (and graduate) at the University of Virginia had a career breakthrough here beating a sluggish Madison Keys and reaching round four.

• One of the open secrets of tennis: when a management agency owns an event, it uses its discretion over wild cards to the benefit of the players it represents—and uses it as a recruiting sweetener. “Sign with us and we’ll promise you a main draw wild card into the X event.” So it is the IMG-owned Miami Open is flush with IMG clients. Fine. But it’s a bad look when players like No. 360–ranked Mikael Ymer is getting an automatic in to a Masters 1000 event while Frances Tiafoe—No. 64, bright American prospect, winner of an event 30 miles up the road just last month—was denied.

On Thursday, Tiafoe landed in the main draw when Pablo Cuevas withdrew with injury. But I’d argue there’s a good-of-the-sport moral imperative here. This is just a bad look all-around.

• A few of you asked about Sloane Stephens, who looked terrific against Victoria Azarenka and then looked something considerably less than terrific against Daria Kasatkina. My take? Sloane likes tennis but she doesn’t love it. And, as such, her play will always fluctuate.

• I had to leave Indian Wells a few days early to get to New York. The United Airlines gates might as well have been an annex to the players lounge. Sascha Zverev, Tomas Berdych, Dominika Cibulkova. One day you’re a Grand Slam finalist, the next day you’re just another weary traveler trying to figure out your boarding zone. The fate of the individual sport athlete…

• Story to follow: an ATP board seat for a European representative on the player’s side will come open soon. This is a critical vacancy.

• How young is Felix Auger Aliassime? When he was born, both Serena and Venus had already won majors. How good is Felix? Very.

• Were it not for Lucie Safarova’s illness, Bethanie Mattek-Sands would have been ready to play doubles here. The miracles of modern medicine….

• It will be interesting to see if Indian Wells and Miami follow the Grand Slams and reduce the seeds to 16. As it is, 32 seeded-players in a 96-player draw is a lot.

• One of the revelations of the tournament: Caroline Dolehide, a 19-year-old from Illinois who took a wild card and justified it, playing with fearlessness and showing some real variety. She won two matches and then took a set off of Simona Halep. Well done.

• Non-tennis (sort of) but this first person piece by Steve Francis has been in heavy rotation in my world. I was struck by this passage about the end of his career: “I went from selling drugs on the corners in D.C. to the NBA in four years…and now it’s over? It’s a wrap? At 32? I knew it was the end, and that’s some really, really hard s*** to swallow. I don’t care who you are....It took me damn near four years to really accept that I wasn’t gonna play ball anymore. That it was really over. I had some dark days, no question. And I know people were asking, ‘What the hell happened to Steve Francis?’”

We often wonder in tennis why so many players—Marion Bartoli and Vera Zvonareva are new additions—come out of retirement. Francis provides some insight. It’s tough to be in your early 30s when you’re time is up and you’re facing a lot of anticlimax.

• The ultimate draw would have been Federer (or Williams-Williams) and that didn’t happen. But note how many top singles players also entered doubles here. Simona Halep, Dominic Thiem, Grigor Dimitrov, Karolina Pliskova, Victoria Azarenka and Juan Martin del Potro were among those taking a shot at the $1 million singles/doubles bonus.

• We hear that Victoria Azarenka’s custody battle is still a work in progress. But “progress” is an operative phrase. As we write this, she is entered in Miami. We’ll see whether she adds international events to her schedule. A second-round loser here (to Sloane Stephens), Azarenka is 28 and this was just her third event in the last 20 months. We’ve seen (far too) many players miss prime years with injury. But it’s hard to recall a player missing prime years by choice. In this respect, she is to be commended.

• Dave Haggerty, ITF president, spent time at the event explaining the Davis Cup reform proposal and clearing up misconceptions. He joined the SI/Tennis Channel podcast and made his case. No question there are many questions left unanswered. (And the notion that fans will flock in droves to Singapore is—how to put this?—a serious yoga stretch.) But from the “innovate or die” playbook, I don’t see how federations vote this down.

• Thanks for your Tennis Channel mail and know it gets read and passed on when appropriate. Here’s a good rule of thumb that will perhaps clear up confusion. If there’s a big event, odds are good that TC will come on at 10:00 a.m. local with a pregame show (earlier at the U.S. Open) and then pivot to calling matches, which usually start at 11 a.m.

40 Parting Thoughts from the 2018 BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells

It's not technically a Grand Slam tournament, the BNP Paribas Open. But it's pretty close. After 12 days in the desert, herewith 40 thoughts—as opposed to our customary 50—from Indian Wells.

• Naomi Osaka has arrived. It’s that simple. Part Haitian, part American, part Japanese and wholly awesome, she won the women’s title beating all manner of opponent by hitting through them. She followed a demolition of top-ranked Simona Halep by routing Daria Kasatkina 6-3, 6-2 in the final for the biggest title of her career—for now, anyway.

• Early in the tournament, a coach who will go nameless claimed to me that there was only one player in the tournament who was unafraid of Roger Federer. He took my drawsheet and circled the name Juan Martin del Potro. Days later, DelPo wins the first Masters 1000 title of his career, taking down the Mighty Federer 6-4, 6-7(8), 7-6(2) in a splendid final.

• This loss in the final will sting. But Federer is the belt that is cinching men’s tennis (all of tennis?) right now. He’s reached an altitude to which no other player has ventured. And, at 36, he is playing some of the best tennis of his career. We can worry about the inevitable transition period that will exist after Federer retires. But for now, enjoy the history being made.

• Daria Kasatkina played a terrific tournament, winning with guile and winning with power; winning in heat and winning in chill; beating players she should beat and those (Carolina Wozniacki, Venus Williams) she perhaps should not. Pity she leaves on a sour note after a lop-sided final because, until then, she was terrific.

• John Isner and Jack Sock won the men’s doubles, beating Bob and Mike Bryan 7-6(4), 7-6(2) in the final.

• Two weeks of Roger Federer and the super-excellent men’s final masked this inconvenient truth: The top five seeds from 2017—Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, Stan Wawrinka, Rafael Nadal and Kei Nishikori—won zero matches in Indian Wells in 2018. Injuries are no joke.

• Venus Williams has not won a title since 2016, but, overall, she’s played some terrific tennis over the past 18 months. Give her the right set of circumstances and this is no farewell tour she’s on.

• Serena Williams did herself proud in return from maternity leave, winning two matches against quality opponents and then falling to Venus in the 29th intra-family battle. Food for thought: if Serena had won this tournament, might it, perversely, have dented her legacy? Had she retuned after 404 days of absence that included childbirth, shown up (understandably) in sub-optimal shape, and taken the trophy, would people not have said, “She has no competition! What does it say about the field that they can’t storm right back like that?” Instead, Serena’s loss suggests that, in the past, the field has been good. She’s simply been better.

• A few of you asked what Serena needs to improve. The obvious answer: her serve. Against Venus she won barely half of her points on serve. She also needs to play herself back into shape. But she ought to be encouraged overall. What was obvious to all: “She’s not there yet, but she ain’t far off.”

• If Serena’s returned answered doubts, the return of another double-digit-Slam winner stoked doubts. Novak Djokovic, a five-time champ here, lost his first match to No. 109 Taro Daniel, capitulating 6-1 in the third set. Nerves played a role. Djokovic’s game was pocked by errors, especially to the backhand, that were uncharacteristic and inexplicable. It was as if Djokovic were playing his first match. And that’s *his* assessment. As I write this, Djokovic is still entered in Miami but perhaps he’d be well served to head back to Monte Carlo, regroup, and rebound on the clay.

• The Rafael Nadal update: he’s at home resting his psoas injury. And we mean resting. He can’t run or golf or fish. He plans to play Davis Cup and then get going on the clay.

• Top of the cap for tournament director, Tommy Haas, who officially became an ATP pensioner last week. While the retirement of 39-year-old athlete—who now must wear long pants to his administrative job—is not exactly a news flash, let the record reflect: Haas is one of only five players to have beaten Federer in the last year.

• Maria Sharapova lost to Naomi Osaka, her third straight defeat. Like so many of her shots, Sharapova simply looked wayward. She didn’t move well. Her balls lacked depth. She didn’t serve well. She may have been dealing with a nagging injury. One of our favorite refrains: tennis careers are not linear functions. That said, you suspect that Sharapova did not expect that her first year back from the doping suspension would be nearly this rocky. After the match she and coach Sven Groeneveld—who remained on the team throughout the 16-month doping suspension—parted ways. Further indication of strange times on Republic of Sharapova.

• This is unpleasant, but here’s a truism of sports: when players return from a doping suspension they are freighted with the additional weight of trying to prove that their previous success did not come on account of cheating. (Anyone who shares my guilty pleasure for MMA knows how often fighters mention this.) It’s hard (dishonest even?) to talk about Sharapova’s comeback and not mention this dimension. Yes, she is playing to restart her career and spin the plot forward. But she is also playing to preserve the past, to validate what came before the suspension. That’s an immense burden to bear.

• I had the good fortune of spending some time with Simona Halep before the event. We’ll do a longer Q/A prior to the French Open. But there is a commendable what-you-see-is-what-you-get to her. Though she’s from Romania, she strikes me as very Midwest. Grounded. Self-reliant. Rigorously honest. No drama. No movie star ambitions. No double talk. She knows she needs to win a major to certify herself. She knows it and she knows she can do it.

• We don't talk much about fashion…who wears what kit and whose dresses and shirts are flattering or unflattering. But a Hall of Famer made this strong point, which is material to tennis. When a player takes the court for a match here—a Grand Slam–caliber event—looking like she just got out of bed, wearing a mismatched outfit and an ill-fitting top, it’s a “tell” to the opponent. That is, she is revealing plenty about her confidence level and her lack of executive function.

• Related topic and take this for what it’s worth…but for the Tennis Channel pregame show, we had a fairly early call time so I was often on-site at 7:00 or 7:30 a.m. The two players I saw most often at that early hour, looking awake and headed to the practice courts: Carolina Garcia and Venus Williams.

• The great unspoken about Indian Wells: the gushing and flattery is completely deserved. It truly is an exceptional sporting event in every respect. But it is not operating under the same economic model and P/L pressures as other events.

• One example among many: it is the rare tournament that, on the eve of the tournament—without buying insurance, I’m told—can add a $1 million bonus for a player winning both singles or doubles. As it turned out no player earned the bonus. Here's hoping we roll it over, Newman-style, and make it $2 million in 2019. For the record, Sam Querrey was the last man to remain eligible.

• By reaching the quarterfinals round, Hyeon Chung overtakes Kei Nishikori as the highest-ranked Asian male. Stop and applaud Nishikori for his longevity. And consider that with Nishikori, Chung (and Naomi Osaka) in the field, tennis ought to get some nice run at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

• Genie Bouchard received a wild card and lost (badly) to Sachia Vickery in round one. We’re long accustomed to players whose profile and popularity and marketing muscle eclipse their on court accomplishments—there’s no rule that popularity ranking must correspond to computer rankings. But Bouchard is well outside the top 100 and eventually these wild cards are going to run out—and so, it seems, are the sponsorships. She got paid by the Bank of White Plains, but the bottom line is that she needs to start winning matches.

• Hard to recall a junior transitioning to the pros more smoothly than Amanda Anisimova has. The 16-year-old from New Jersey won three matches—including a rock-em, sock-em defeat of Petra Kvitova—and will be in the top 150. She has plenty assets but it’s her lacks that might be more impressive. She is completely devoid of awe. You have the feeling she is exactly where she expects to be and no success is surprising to her.

• Long known as Serena’s hitting partner, Sascha Bajin has made a nice transition to coach. He’s now working with Naomi Osaka and has learned that sometimes his duties extend far beyond forehands and backhands. In Osaka’s third-round match, Bajin had to deal with a heckler in the opposing camp who was upsetting his player.

• Taylor Fritz has added the wise head of Paul Annacone to the brain trust. After an eventful stretch—that included becoming a father and dealing with a vexing injury—Fritz is back in the top 75 and arrowing upward. His third round win over Fernando Verdasco—a 7-6 in the third, who-wants-it-more? special—was a vital step Fritz’s evolution.

• Flach played at Southern Illinois, coached at Vanderbilt and was a champion for college tennis…which continues to re-emerge as an advisable option for so many. Add Danielle Collins to the list. The two-time NCAA champion (and graduate) at the University of Virginia had a career breakthrough here beating a sluggish Madison Keys and reaching round four.

• One of the open secrets of tennis: when a management agency owns an event, it uses its discretion over wild cards to the benefit of the players it represents—and uses it as a recruiting sweetener. “Sign with us and we’ll promise you a main draw wild card into the X event.” So it is the IMG-owned Miami Open is flush with IMG clients. Fine. But it’s a bad look when players like No. 360–ranked Mikael Ymer is getting an automatic in to a Masters 1000 event while Frances Tiafoe—No. 64, bright American prospect, winner of an event 30 miles up the road just last month—was denied.

On Thursday, Tiafoe landed in the main draw when Pablo Cuevas withdrew with injury. But I’d argue there’s a good-of-the-sport moral imperative here. This is just a bad look all-around.

• A few of you asked about Sloane Stephens, who looked terrific against Victoria Azarenka and then looked something considerably less than terrific against Daria Kasatkina. My take? Sloane likes tennis but she doesn’t love it. And, as such, her play will always fluctuate.

• I had to leave Indian Wells a few days early to get to New York. The United Airlines gates might as well have been an annex to the players lounge. Sascha Zverev, Tomas Berdych, Dominika Cibulkova. One day you’re a Grand Slam finalist, the next day you’re just another weary traveler trying to figure out your boarding zone. The fate of the individual sport athlete…

• Story to follow: an ATP board seat for a European representative on the player’s side will come open soon. This is a critical vacancy.

• How young is Felix Auger Aliassime? When he was born, both Serena and Venus had already won majors. How good is Felix? Very.

• Were it not for Lucie Safarova’s illness, Bethanie Mattek-Sands would have been ready to play doubles here. The miracles of modern medicine….

• It will be interesting to see if Indian Wells and Miami follow the Grand Slams and reduce the seeds to 16. As it is, 32 seeded-players in a 96-player draw is a lot.

• One of the revelations of the tournament: Caroline Dolehide, a 19-year-old from Illinois who took a wild card and justified it, playing with fearlessness and showing some real variety. She won two matches and then took a set off of Simona Halep. Well done.

• Non-tennis (sort of) but this first person piece by Steve Francis has been in heavy rotation in my world. I was struck by this passage about the end of his career: “I went from selling drugs on the corners in D.C. to the NBA in four years…and now it’s over? It’s a wrap? At 32? I knew it was the end, and that’s some really, really hard s*** to swallow. I don’t care who you are....It took me damn near four years to really accept that I wasn’t gonna play ball anymore. That it was really over. I had some dark days, no question. And I know people were asking, ‘What the hell happened to Steve Francis?’”

We often wonder in tennis why so many players—Marion Bartoli and Vera Zvonareva are new additions—come out of retirement. Francis provides some insight. It’s tough to be in your early 30s when you’re time is up and you’re facing a lot of anticlimax.

• The ultimate draw would have been Federer (or Williams-Williams) and that didn’t happen. But note how many top singles players also entered doubles here. Simona Halep, Dominic Thiem, Grigor Dimitrov, Karolina Pliskova, Victoria Azarenka and Juan Martin del Potro were among those taking a shot at the $1 million singles/doubles bonus.

• We hear that Victoria Azarenka’s custody battle is still a work in progress. But “progress” is an operative phrase. As we write this, she is entered in Miami. We’ll see whether she adds international events to her schedule. A second-round loser here (to Sloane Stephens), Azarenka is 28 and this was just her third event in the last 20 months. We’ve seen (far too) many players miss prime years with injury. But it’s hard to recall a player missing prime years by choice. In this respect, she is to be commended.

• Dave Haggerty, ITF president, spent time at the event explaining the Davis Cup reform proposal and clearing up misconceptions. He joined the SI/Tennis Channel podcast and made his case. No question there are many questions left unanswered. (And the notion that fans will flock in droves to Singapore is—how to put this?—a serious yoga stretch.) But from the “innovate or die” playbook, I don’t see how federations vote this down.

• Thanks for your Tennis Channel mail and know it gets read and passed on when appropriate. Here’s a good rule of thumb that will perhaps clear up confusion. If there’s a big event, odds are good that TC will come on at 10:00 a.m. local with a pregame show (earlier at the U.S. Open) and then pivot to calling matches, which usually start at 11 a.m.

Roger Federer brushes aside Hyeon Chung at Indian Wells to match his best start to a season with 16th straight win

In the latest addition to his catalogue of marvels, world No 1 Roger Federer equalled his best start to a season on Thursday night, when he beat Hyeon Chung in Indian Wells to notch his 16th straight win. Federer overpowered his 21-year-old opponent, who was still in nappies when he won his first ATP point, by a 7-5, 6-1 scoreline. The one-sidednesss of the contest can be measured by the winners tally: 32 for Federer, eight for Chung. The last time Federer won his first 16 matches of a season was in 2006 – his best-ever year, in percentage terms, which saw him stack up an extraordinary 92 victories and just five defeats, and win three of the four majors. His only defeat at the slams that season came against Rafael Nadal in the final of the French Open. In the early weeks of 2006, Federer’s victims included Nikolay Davydenko and Fabrice Santoro. Almost inevitably, it was Nadal who stopped the sequence by beating him in the Dubai final. But this year Nadal is still struggling with a damaged hip. Federer will play Borna Coric in the Indian Wells semi-final late on Saturday night (UK time). “I'm happy I found a way,” said Federer after Thursday night’s win. “Started off really well, struggled afterwards, found my game back again and was able to protect it, saving big break points early on in the second set. I think that was the key to the match, those 10, 15 minutes where I broke at the end of the first and then saved break points early in the second.” Federer completed the so-called “Sunshine Double” – back-to-back victories in the two biggest American spring hard-court events at Indian Wells and Miami – for the third time last year. He is thus defending 2000 points in the space of four weeks, and could theoretically allow Nadal to move back past him to No 1 – even without hitting a ball - if his form slips. But by reaching the Indian Wells semi-final, Federer has staved off this possibility for the meantime and will remain on top of the rankings on Monday. To extend his reign into the clay-court season, he needs to achieve one of these three scenarios. 1) A title in either tournament. 2) A runner-up finish at one and a quarter-final at the other. 3) A semi-final at each.

Rafa still the favourite on clay - Uncle Toni

Toni Nadal says there is no reason why nephew and world number two Rafael Nadal cannot retain his French Open crown.

Rafa still the favourite on clay - Uncle Toni

Toni Nadal says there is no reason why nephew and world number two Rafael Nadal cannot retain his French Open crown.

Rafa still the favourite on clay - Uncle Toni

Toni Nadal says there is no reason why nephew and world number two Rafael Nadal cannot retain his French Open crown.

Mailbag: What Did We Learn From the Start of Serena Williams's Comeback at Indian Wells?

INDIAN WELLS – A quick essay and some quick Q/A from a strange-yet-entertaining BNP Paribas Open…..We can’t promise 50 thoughts, but we’ll try and wrap up on Sunday. Enjoy the last few days, everyone!

Imagine a casual fan, a local, who attended the BNP Paribas Open last year. Then, they lost track of the sport a bit. That happens. They return this year. One can only imagine the conversation they have with a seatmate:

“The ball is still yellow. It has to clear a net, land in the right boxes and can only bounce once. But is this still the same sport? I barely recognize it.”

“Of course. Why do you ask?”

“It just seems so different.”

“Different how?”

“Last year in Indian Wells, Andy Murray, Djokovic, Stan Wawrinka, Kei Nishikori and Rafael Nadal were the top five seeds. What happened to those guys?”

“It’s a rough sport, tennis is. They’re all hurt.”

“And you told me that Novak Djokovic was going through a rough patch mentally but would be back soon, gobbling up wins.”

“Still could happen...”

“I remember you saying that teenagers could no longer cut it in this sport. Too physical and all that.”

“Yeah but—”

“Everywhere I look, I see these kids. They’re not old enough to buy a drink—can’t even vote in some cases—but they sure can smack a tennis ball.”

“True, but….”

“And Maria Sharapova—you said her suspension was ending, and watch out, she was going to return with a vengeance.”

“Yeah that hasn't really…”

“And Serena Williams. You told me she was out with a left knee injury. You didn’t tell me she was pregnant and wouldn’t play again until now!”

“I was only going by what she told us. Besides, she’s back!”

“And what about Federer?”

“What about him? He’s here.”

“You said, it was nice to see him beat Nadal in the final and win that Australian Open at age 35. Something about lightning in a bottle and a fitting capstone to his career. Now he can retire in peace.”

“Yeah, I guess that plot kinda changed, too, in that last year.”

“I can barely keep up with this sport. Thankfully, there’s still that time-honored competition of Davis Cup. Four weeks a year. Nation against nation. Home and away. That’ll have to anchor things for me.”

“Um, yeah…”

Mailbag

Have a question or comment for Jon? Email him at jon_wertheim@yahoo.com or tweet him @jon_wertheim.

Jon, you saw it up close and in person. How far does Serena have to go before she is back to winning majors?—Steve T., New York

• Funny, I saw her play six sets and….I’m not sure we learned all that much. She can still hit the ball. She can still compete. She is—completely expectedly—dusted, if not coated, in rust. The better she serves, the more effective she is. (No kidding.) Too many errors pock her game. (No kidding.) After childbirth and motherhood, her conditioning might be suboptimal. (No kidding.)

The good news is that we are nowhere near the lower extreme. I was told that there was real concern in her camp about this comeback. She extinguished that notion early, winning her first four sets against credible opponents, showing her usual knack of playing her best when the situation called for it. The less good news: she is a considerable distance removed from her Aussie Open 2017 form.

Overall, I would contend that this tournament worked out well. Any doomsday fears were quelled. Yet she knows there’s work to do, which is noting new—or daunting—to her. You know the H.L. Mencken line, “No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public”? The tennis corollary: no one ever went rich underestimating Serena Williams.

We all love Roger Federer, but what does it say about the ATP when a 36-year-old man can win so easily?—Aaron S., Princeton, N.J.

• I think that’s a fair question to pose. We had plenty murmurs about “what does it say about the WTA if Serena can come back from pregnancy and childbirth and recovery and win?” Well, what does it say about the ATP when a 36-year-old father of four cleans up?

The rebuttal is multi-pronged. We’re talking about Federer. This passes the eye test. He is playing exquisite tennis. The results are much more a function of his excellence than the opponents’ shortcomings. And surely he would be challenged more often if Nadal, Djokovic, Murray, Wawrinka (and even Nishikori) were playing.

Buy or sell on Grigor Dimitrov and Sasha Zverev? If I owned stocks, I'd be worrying, especially about Zverev. —Shlomo Kreitman

• I’d hold both. But I would diversify my portfolio. Dimitrov tantalizes us with his style, his versatility, his thorough likability as a human being and his occasional result (see Cincinnati and London.) But the consistency has always been elusive.

As for Zverev, I do think he will win majors one day. But that day is not tomorrow. And it may come in the foreseeable future. There are still too many lapses of focus to see him winning seven best-of-five matches.

While you have some of your Tennis Channel colleagues who are both former players and coaches, perhaps you could ask them about coaching a player during the match. Not the abysmal WTA on court coaching, but rather the not so subtle coaching coming from the box during the match. As former players who know the rules and the codes, do these current coaches feel they should toe the line and not coach at all from the box or do they push the limits?—Ken Wells, Gardiner, Maine

• I’ve heard everything here from “I don't do it” (even when there’s video evidence to the contrary) to “I can’t help myself” to “everyone does it so I’m disadvantaging my player if I don’t do it, too.” This “not so subtle coaching coming from the box during the match” is a justification for the WTA’s on-court coaching “innovation.” Shoot, everyone is cheating. So why not legalize it and try to capitalize on the entertainment value?

As many of you know, I have many issues with this “innovation.” Chief among them: it shows the players at their worst. The winners and the players who succeeding are seldom the ones using the dial-a-friend option. (See: Venus and Serena.) It’s the addled and the testy and the flummoxed. It’s players who are having an unpleasant internal monologue that soon becomes an unpleasant external dialogue. It highlights WTA players at their lowest moments. But fear not, the tempered and wise males are there to straighten out these emotional women!

Shots, Miscellany

• This week’s LLS is the audible variety. Reader James B. of Portland notes that Pam Shriver sounds much like NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly.

At Indian Wells for the weekend. Looking at order of play, we decide to catch some Jan-Lennard Struff v. Alex De Minaur. If you’re at home, it’s not a TV match. Neither player is top 40, so it doesn’t merit more than a passing reference. It’s a first round match between two non-seeds, so it’s on a smaller court that’s we’re able to get courtside seats with no difficulty.

What we saw was the best match I’ve seen in a couple of years. Two warriors making incredible plays, chasing each other all over the court, hitting serves and making returns that made the crowd gush in admiration again and again and again.

If you watch from home, you’d never experience it. That’s even if you had a chance to see it at home. There’s a lot of reward for supporting your favorite sport by attending live matches. I’ve added two new faves to my list, and I’m so very excited for young De Minaur, who appears to be the real deal.

Roger Federer says he needs to stay 'sharp' as he keeps on track for Indian Wells title No 6

Roger Federer took his 2018 record to 14-0 as he dispatched Filip Krajinovic in less than an hour at Indian Wells to reach the fourth round. The world No 1 has only dropped two sets this year and continued his dominant showing with a 6-2, 6-1 thrashing of Serbian Krajinovic. With rivals Rafa Nadal, Stan Wawrinka and Andy Murray injured and Novak Djokovic suffering an early exit, the path appears clear for the Swiss to win a record sixth Indian Wells title. Despite the promising outlook, Federer insists he is taking it one match at a time. "You can't really look ahead to semi-finals, finals and speculate about who you could play," he said. Had a nice day at the office with no ☔️ and all ☀ pic.twitter.com/8puTjgh377— Roger Federer (@rogerfederer) March 13, 2018 "I think that would be a mistake. I am on a good run right now and I want to maintain that. I have to stay sharp." Federer, who was playing for a third day in a row due to weather delays in Indian Wells, won 89 per cent of his first service points. Krajinovic had no answer to Federer's relentless return game either and ended up winning just 31 of the match's 93 points. Next up for Federer is a meeting on Wednesday with France's Jeremy Chardy, who upset his countryman Adrian Mannarino earlier on Monday. In other matches, fifth-seeded Dominic Thiem had to retire with an ankle injury while trailing Pablo Cuevas 6-3 4-6 2-4. Roger That Five-time champ Federer notches his 9th straight win in Indian Wells, topping Krajinovic 6-2 6-1 in just 58 minutes. Awaiting him in the 4R: Chardy. #BNPPO18pic.twitter.com/9iEehnIYwo— BNP Paribas Open (@BNPPARIBASOPEN) March 12, 2018 Seventh seed Kevin Anderson took down Nicolas Kicker 7-6(1), 7-6(3) and South Korea’s Chung Hyeon beat Tomas Berdych 6-4, 6-4. Borna Coric of Croatia upset 13th seed Roberto Bautista Agut 6-1 6-3 and Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta defeated Daniil Medvedev 6-1, 7-5. American Taylor Fritz enjoyed a comeback victory over Fernando Verdasco 4-6, 6-2, 7-6(1). The 20-year-old has now won 11 of 12 final-set tiebreaks. “I think it speaks to my strengths on court, which is just being clutch and playing my best tennis in the big moments,” Fritz said, adding, "... it’s probably the stat that I’m most proud about in my tennis career".

MAN52. Indian Wells (United States), 11/03/2018.- A fan holds up a sign that reads 'We Miss you Rafa' in reference to Rafael Nadal who pulled because of an injury during the Federico Delbonis - Roger Federer match at the BNP Paribas Open at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in Indian Wells, California, USA, 10 March 2018. (Abierto, Tenis, Estados Unidos) EFE/EPA/MIKE NELSON

MAN52. Indian Wells (United States), 11/03/2018.- A fan holds up a sign that reads 'We Miss you Rafa' in reference to Rafael Nadal who pulled because of an injury during the Federico Delbonis - Roger Federer match at the BNP Paribas Open at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in Indian Wells, California, USA, 10 March 2018. (Abierto, Tenis, Estados Unidos) EFE/EPA/MIKE NELSON

News that there are plans to overhaul the Davis Cup were greeted with outrage in many quarters last week, but world No 3 Marin Cilic believes the changes would be ‘incredibly good news for tennis’. Speaking to The Tennis Podcast, Cilic said that the plans to create a one-week extravaganza with 18 teams at the end of the year in a single venue rather than the current home and away system would, in his opinion, be supported by ’99.9% of players’. “I think these changes are incredibly good news for tennis,” said Cilic. “Players have been trying to talk to the ITF, and there have been so many conversations for the last 10 years to change Davis Cup because it’s just too difficult for players to play four weeks of the year, and every single year. There have been many conversations about how to change things - maybe the scoring system, or to have it every two years. This news that we can have it all in a one week tournament is incredibly good and valuable. I think it will bring more attention to Davis Cup, everyone will be much more involved rather than just two teams and it will create a nice vibe. It will still be known a year in advance where the Davis Cup finals will be played so I think people will be able to make their plans and support their teams and they will have all the teams in once place.” Would the date - at the end of the year, thereby shortening the off-season, not be a problem? “People say it will make the season longer by having it in November, but actually by doing it this way you are giving players three weeks off in a year,” said Cilic, referring to the four weekends that a team currently needs to compete in to reach the final. “It will reduce the requirements from 4 weeks to 1. Plus this tournament will be played over best of 3 sets with two singles and one doubles. I don’t think it will be that demanding on players. I think 99.9% of players will want this new system.” Cilic also tells presenter David Law how he dealt with his Wimbledon final loss to Roger Federer, his thoughts about the improving Kyle Edmund, and how long he thinks it will take Andy Murray to get back to his best. On Tuesday, it was announced that Cilic plans to join Murray, Rafael Nadal and Grigor Dimitrov at The Queen’s Club Championships, 18th-24th June. Tickets are now available - http://po.st/QueensTickets2018 The Tennis Podcast is produced weekly throughout the year and daily during the Grand Slam tournaments, in association with Telegraph Sport and Eurosport. Listen- http://po.st/TP_Cilic Download - http://po.st/TP_CilicDownload Subscribe on iPhones/iPads - http://po.st/TP_CilicApple Android phones - search ‘Tennis’ in any podcast app.

Serena Williams made a successful return to the tour at Indian Wells on Thursday night, defeating world No. 53 Zarina Diyas in her first match since the birth of daughter Alexis Ohanian in September. But the post-match press conference took an unexpected turn as Williams was forced to defend herself over a backdated Therapeutic Use Exemption that she had received for the use of prednisolone – a banned corticosteroid – during the 2015 French Open. Having completed her 7-5, 6-3 victory over Diyas in 1hr 32mins, Williams was initially jubilant. "It was incredible,” she said. “It's been over a year and a kid later. I get to go home to her now and I'm excited about that. It definitely wasn't easy but it was good. I'm a little rusty but it doesn't matter.” Then Williams was asked why she had required the backdated TUE, which was revealed as part of a cache of confidential data by the Fancy Bears hacker group in 2016. “Can you talk louder,” she told the questioner, as part of an acerbic exchange, “so everyone can hear you ask about my drugs?” After informing reporters that she had never tested positive, Williams explained that “I wasn’t going to play it [the French Open] unless I had a TUE because if you remember that year I was incredibly sick … I said I literally can’t play the final but I need a TUE to take a decongestant. Williams admitted her game was rusty Credit: AP “That’s one thing I take pride on, especially having a daughter. I’m never going to be able to look my daughter in the eye and say ‘Mom cheated’ or ‘Mom did something like that that is totally irresponsible.’” WADA’s code says that retroactive exemptions may be granted after an athlete needs to be treated for an “acute medical condition”. Williams can justifiably claim that she fell into this category, judging by the extensive behind-the-scenes footage included in the movie documentary Serena. The footage showed her bedbound and struggling with a chest infection in the build-up to the French Open final. Some athletes – including the Team Sky cyclist Geraint Thomas – are now questioning whether TUEs should be abolished entirely, given the cynical way in which they can be exploited. But while a zero-tolerance stance would certainly have benefited Lucie Safarova, the runner-up at that 2015 French Open, Williams can hardly be accused of gaming the system. And a major tournament with no final would have been a huge disappointment, for both fans and broadcasters. On the broader subject of what had motivated her to come back to the tennis tour after a difficult birth, which left her requiring urgent medical treatment for a life-threatening blood clot, Williams replied “It just wasn’t my time to retire yet even though it would have been a great way to retire [by beating sister Venus in the Australian Open final in her final match before the birth]. I just felt like my story wasn't over." Why Nadal must borrow a page from the Federer playbook Also on Thursday night, Victoria Azarenka became the second grand-slam champion to score a comeback victory in Indian Wells. Azarenka, who had not played on the tour since last year’s Wimbledon, followed Williams onto the main stadium at Indian Wells and handed out a 6-4, 6-2 beating to British No. 2 Heather Watson. Azarenka’s absence is also connected with motherhood, although in her case, she has been distracted by a lengthy custody battle for her young son Leo, whom she has been unable to take outside her home state of California. The legal case is still active, according to Azarenka, but she said that she is planning to complete the so-called “Sunshine Double” by playing the Miami Open anyway. After that, her future remains uncertain. Asked by the New York Times if she felt that she has suffered “lost years”, Azarenka replied “It’s unfortunate and it’s not a great time, but it’s part of life and I’m still 28 years old and recently there are No. 1s over 30 so I’m okay with that. I’m still young.”

Serena Williams made a successful return to the tour at Indian Wells on Thursday night, defeating world No. 53 Zarina Diyas in her first match since the birth of daughter Alexis Ohanian in September. But the post-match press conference took an unexpected turn as Williams was forced to defend herself over a backdated Therapeutic Use Exemption that she had received for the use of prednisolone – a banned corticosteroid – during the 2015 French Open. Having completed her 7-5, 6-3 victory over Diyas in 1hr 32mins, Williams was initially jubilant. "It was incredible,” she said. “It's been over a year and a kid later. I get to go home to her now and I'm excited about that. It definitely wasn't easy but it was good. I'm a little rusty but it doesn't matter.” Then Williams was asked why she had required the backdated TUE, which was revealed as part of a cache of confidential data by the Fancy Bears hacker group in 2016. “Can you talk louder,” she told the questioner, as part of an acerbic exchange, “so everyone can hear you ask about my drugs?” After informing reporters that she had never tested positive, Williams explained that “I wasn’t going to play it [the French Open] unless I had a TUE because if you remember that year I was incredibly sick … I said I literally can’t play the final but I need a TUE to take a decongestant. Williams admitted her game was rusty Credit: AP “That’s one thing I take pride on, especially having a daughter. I’m never going to be able to look my daughter in the eye and say ‘Mom cheated’ or ‘Mom did something like that that is totally irresponsible.’” WADA’s code says that retroactive exemptions may be granted after an athlete needs to be treated for an “acute medical condition”. Williams can justifiably claim that she fell into this category, judging by the extensive behind-the-scenes footage included in the movie documentary Serena. The footage showed her bedbound and struggling with a chest infection in the build-up to the French Open final. Some athletes – including the Team Sky cyclist Geraint Thomas – are now questioning whether TUEs should be abolished entirely, given the cynical way in which they can be exploited. But while a zero-tolerance stance would certainly have benefited Lucie Safarova, the runner-up at that 2015 French Open, Williams can hardly be accused of gaming the system. And a major tournament with no final would have been a huge disappointment, for both fans and broadcasters. On the broader subject of what had motivated her to come back to the tennis tour after a difficult birth, which left her requiring urgent medical treatment for a life-threatening blood clot, Williams replied “It just wasn’t my time to retire yet even though it would have been a great way to retire [by beating sister Venus in the Australian Open final in her final match before the birth]. I just felt like my story wasn't over." Why Nadal must borrow a page from the Federer playbook Also on Thursday night, Victoria Azarenka became the second grand-slam champion to score a comeback victory in Indian Wells. Azarenka, who had not played on the tour since last year’s Wimbledon, followed Williams onto the main stadium at Indian Wells and handed out a 6-4, 6-2 beating to British No. 2 Heather Watson. Azarenka’s absence is also connected with motherhood, although in her case, she has been distracted by a lengthy custody battle for her young son Leo, whom she has been unable to take outside her home state of California. The legal case is still active, according to Azarenka, but she said that she is planning to complete the so-called “Sunshine Double” by playing the Miami Open anyway. After that, her future remains uncertain. Asked by the New York Times if she felt that she has suffered “lost years”, Azarenka replied “It’s unfortunate and it’s not a great time, but it’s part of life and I’m still 28 years old and recently there are No. 1s over 30 so I’m okay with that. I’m still young.”

Mailbag: 10 Storylines to Follow at Indian Wells 2018

A quick pre-Indian Wells Mailbag. First some housekeeping:

1) Tennis Channel has you covered at the BNP Paribas event. Brett Haber, Tracy Austin, James Blake and I will be doing the daily pregame show at 10 a.m. PT and then match overage begins.2) Petra Kvitova is our most recent podcast guest.3) We’ll have another guest later this week.4) Stick around till the end for a tremendous reader riff.

Both on Twitter and at a tennis brunch, we had a lively discussion about Roger Federer’s chances if he were to decide to play the French Open. It’s a fun thought exercise, in part because it’s so unlikely to happen. Some quick thoughts:

1) Again, I think we need to stress that this is hypothetical. Federer did not play on clay last year and is unlikely to change his philosophy in 2018. Yes, as someone committed to winning majors, it must be tempting. Yes, he’s won on clay before. Yes, he’s won three of the last four majors he’s entered. Yes, if Rafael Nadal is compromised, entering Roland Garros must be all the more tantalizing for Federer. But I don't see it.

2) If Federer were to enter, would he be the favorite? Not if Nadal is willing and able, of course. (And depending on the state of Djokovic’s body and head….) But Federer would be a real contender; and absent those two, the favorite. Federer has “only” won the French Open once, of course. But he’s reached the finals five times; he’s won Madrid six times; and he’s won more than 200 matches on clay….it’s not exactly a foreign substance.

3) What about the young guys, especially Dominic Thiem, a semifinalist two years running? I think this falls under “you have the win a Slam before you can be favored to win a Slam.” Federer vs. Thiem, in a best-of-five match? Amid the gravitas of a Slam? In front of a wildly partisan crowd? With so much context and subtext? I say that’s Federer, 60-40.

4) So why doesn’t Federer play Roland Garros again? Specifically, a few reasons: Clay is the surface that demands the most out of him physically. The Parisian weather—those damp, heavy days—must spook a 36-year-old man with back problems. Federer wouldn’t likely enter a Slam without any prep work so suddenly he’s entering tune-ups and his entire spring schedule would really be turned sideways. The proximity to Wimbledon means that a niggling injury suffered in Paris might not have time to heal. But the overall reason: Federer is at his most rational when designing his schedule. What rhythms are most conducive to prolonging my career and maximizing my chance at the biggest titles? Playing clay doesn’t fit here.

5) But let’s agree that a) it’s fun to consider b) it’s remarkable that we’re talking about a player—on his worse surface, closer to age 40 than to 30—and discussing this in earnest.

Onward…

Mailbag

Have a question or comment for Jon? Email him at jon_wertheim@yahoo.com or tweet him @jon_wertheim.

Jon, it's too bad that my favorite player, Rafael Nadal, won’t be at Indian Wells this year. But I will. Still so many good players and it’s such a fun time. What are some of their storylines you’ll be following?—Jean, Los Angeles

• Thanks for this question. Jean raises another existential tennis issue: pre-tournament news tends to be relentlessly negative, a litany of players who are not competing in a certain event and come in uncertain status. This is a challenge for the sport’s PR practitioners: how to generate more encouraging headlines to combat the inevitable withdrawal news?

Anyway, some of the storylines are obvious. Can Federer defend his title, especially with so many challenges sidelined? How does Serena look in her first event coming off maternity leave? But here are ten other Indian Wells storylines/questions off the top of my head:

1) Whither Novak Djokovic? He won this event in 2016. Then he won the French Open a few months later. And since then, it’s been tough sledding, as the cliché prone would say. Can his comeback start in the desert?

2) Petra Kvitova is back in the top ten and riding a two-tournament win streak. Have we moved beyond the comeback backstory to a place where we can talk about a player who could fill the vacuum?

3)Victoria Azarenka is another player who’s conquered the desert in recent year. Yet she’s played six matches in the last 20 months. What’s the state of her game?

4) Frances Tiafoe had a breakthrough week recently in Delray beating Juan Martin del Potro, Hyeon Chung and Denis Shapovalov to win the title. Can he build at this bigger event?

5) A year ago, Sloane Stephens came to Indian Wells in a wheelchair, still nursing a foot injury. She returns this year as….what? A recent Grand Slam champion, capable of winning the title, and also a player struggling to win matches. (Note her likely showdown against Azarenka.)

6) Simona Halep is back at No.1 thanks to the vagaries of the rankings. How does it fit her?

7) It was two years ago this week that Maria Sharapova tested positive for meldonium. She’s back but is she back? She’s north of 30 (age) and north of 40 (rankings) and, allegedly, less than fully healthy.

8) Ryan Harrison and Donald Young will both be present. Enough said.

9) Who is Nicolas Jarry and why have so many loyal readers from South America touted him as a player we need to discuss?

10) “Uncle” Larry Ellison has ponied up a $1 million bonus to any player who wins singles AND doubles. (Ironically, the defending women’s champ, Elena Vesnina, might be the most likely candidate.) Will this impact doubles draws? And if no player wins in 2018, can we roll over the bonus and play for $2 million in 2019?

Something I think many recreational players must wonder about from time to time (myself included) is how much energy do professional players save in a match as a result of not having to chase down balls after points? Now that we have technology to track players’ total movement during matches, has this ever been used to look at ballboy/girls? It would be fun to look at the total movement of ballkids on one half of the net for a match, which we could compare to player movement to at least get a rough idea of how much energy it takes to pick up your own balls.—Geoff Auckland, New Zealand

• Interesting. There are no ballkids, of course, in college tennis nor in lower level events. It would be interesting to learn how this impacts player exertion. On the one hand, you’re squandering extra energy chasing down wayward balls. On the other hand, the extra time between points required to accumulate all the balls might be an advantage to the players. You have a few extras second to recover physically and a few extra seconds to collect your thoughts.

On the topic of players and their rhythms between points….

I happen to take notice watching the Delray Beach Open doubles final, which was played in extreme heat, that the four competitors rarely if ever went to grab a towel between points. Some of these points were certainly just as strenuous and if not more so then when a singles player grabs his towel after almost every point (including aces and double faults).

This proves that it is many times unnecessary and just a time waster that slows the pace of play. Probably not, but maybe a new rule/way to limit the number of times a player can go to the towel between points per game? I watch old matches from not too long along players never went to the towel between points. Thoughts?—Thanks and continued success, Fish

• I’m with you. Our favorite is when there’s a double-fault and the returner takes a towel break. Dude, you literally did not swing, much less make contact, much less play a point. If you are sweating, you have really overhydrated.

Singles players sometimes mention that they towel off, less as a practical action than as part of their ritual. Fine, but that comes at the expense of viewer enjoyment, which is a problem. (Doubles players don’t get a total pass. Too often their Yalta-style strategic conferences between points seems excessive.)

Davis Cup will suffer a slow death unless the best players compete. It’s long, boring and the winners are often not the best players. The Fed Cup has earlier had the short one-week format (I coached the Norwegian team in 83 degrees in Zurich) and I think it is the best alternative. It is not the title, it’s the players. All honor to the ITF for seeing that this is a sinking ship. It will live, and survive, as long as the best players show up. I think the short format will be perfect for the players and also the fans. Too bad the Laver Cup has just been put out of business!!—Patrick Kramer

• I wouldn't bury the Laver Cup just quite yet. Different concepts, different vibes. And don’t underestimate the authority of Federer (and his commercial power) even X years from now, when he is retired. (And by “X,” we mean the Roman numeral for ten.)

As for the future of Davis Cup and this radical proposal, we’ll see. The success depends largely on which players are enticed to participate. But market forces are powerful motivators. And something had to be done. Now—in a battle to rival Federer/Nadal—we’ll see who prevails, the traditionalists or the mavericks. No question that the current proposal has its weaknesses and issues and logistical complications. But the current version of Davis Cup is so flawed, so tone-deaf to the current demands of the sport and, consequently, so lacking in currency…something had to be done.

I was listening to the 30-love podcast with Carl Bialik interviewing Cliff Richey and he discussed getting the "yips" with his backhand partly due to his unorthodox swing and how Arthur Ashe once experienced the same thing with his unique service motion. Once a particular stroke goes "off" perhaps it is harder to reestablish it if the stroke is unconventional. I know you don't have a crystal ball for predicting "yips" but what current tour players on the WTA or ATP have the most unorthodox yet effective strokes? I wonder about that gorgeous leaping Shapovalov backhand and whether it will place a lot of stress on his shoulder as he ages. Thanks Jon.—Ian S.

• This is a good one to crowd source. “Unorthodox” takes on a variety of definitions. The Nadal forehand is wildly unorthodox. Yet for 15 years it’s been terrifically effective, so perhaps it’s more conventional than we think. Nick Kyrgios’s entire mode of being is unconventional, at least to tennis. Serena Williams’ tennis upbringing is unconventional. Same for Federer, for that matter.

More conventionally unconventional, there’s the entire game of Monica Niculescu. (And Ons Jabeur if you really want to go down the rankings.) Pierre-Hugues Herbert serve. Alex Dolgopolov’s serve merits mention here, too. The Ernests Gulbis forehand defies physics and convention in equal measure. Can we discuss Marion Bartoli and her two-handed forehand now that she’s back? As a bonus, there’s Pablo Cuevas doing this.

Shots, Miscellany

• Octagon announced the signing of American tennis sensation, Frances Tiafoe, to a worldwide, exclusive marketing and management agreement. The 20-year-old will be represented by Octagon vice president, Kelly Wolf.

• Elina Svitolina has won her first Tie Break Tens tournament, following a thrilling battle with Shuai Zhang in the final at New York’s legendary sports venue, Madison Square Garden. Having seen off Venus Williams and CoCo Vandeweghe in the previous rounds of the new fast-paced, short-form tennis competition, Elina Svitolina dominated in all of her matches to take home the champion’s check of $250,000.

• The PowerShares Series, a competitive men's tennis circuit featuring some of the ATP's former top-ranked players, will return to Charleston on Saturday, April 7th at the Volvo Car Stadium. This year's line-up features Andy Roddick, Michael Chang, Tommy Haas and Mark Philippoussis.

• Five past champions, nine Americans and a trio of 21-and-under rising stars 22 highlight the initial entry list for the 2018 Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship which will be held at River Oaks Country Club April 7-15. The US Clay winner in four of the past five years—Steve Johnson (2017), Jack Sock (2015), Fernando Verdasco (2014) and John Isner (2013)—will be joined by 2007 US Clay winner Ivo Karlovic in the field. Johnson, Sock and Isner are among an American contingent that includes two-time finalist Sam Querrey, Tennys Sandgren, Ryan Harrison, Frances Tiafoe, Taylor Fritz and Donald Young.

Pierre Vaultier said about Djokovic: “When I am watching him play, his expressions and his intonation, I feel like I am watching myself.”

Vaultier also said that he was a fan of Djokovic and had always wanted to meet him. Djokovic responded by inviting Vaultier to the French Open: "Let's make it happen. See you at RG!"

• Joe S. has our reader riff this week:

As for Eugenie, I'm always glad to see plaintiffs cash in (I was a plaintiffs' whore myself when I was masquerading as an attorney at law). I'm also glad to see that you sure nailed it when you described litigation as a runaway train from which only the lawyers get rich. Litigation is a racket and a scandal with a lot of willing participants including the judges. Let me add a few thoughts to what you observed: Why wasn't the case settled immediately as it should have been—any fool could have seen from the get-go where it was going—? First, consider that it wasn't the USTA but rather its insurer that was the real party defending the suit. Then realize that lawyers for insurers get paid for the time they put in working on a case, "billable hours."* So, when an insurer's lawyer settles a case right away, he makes zilch. Therefore insurance-defense lawyers perfect the art of taking their insurer-clients down the garden path with promises like "We'll beat this" and/or "We'll save you money" and "Leave it to us." Having thus gulled their clients, these sharpie lawyers then spend years "churning the file" by fomenting phony disputes over discovery, hiring experts, taking depositions, filing and opposing motions that they themselves have made necessary, etc., etc., etc., blah, blah, blah. By the time the smoke has cleared a few years later, these lawyers are already into the insurer for a few hundred grand before the plaintiff has even seen a nickel. And, as if that's not bad enough for the insurer, then the plaintiff hits the insurer for a bonanza recovery by settlement or trial. Will it do the insurer any good to fire that law firm and get another afterwards? Of course not, any new law firm will do the same thing all over again in the next case. They're all whores. Their motto is "Please sue my client." One solution that has been tried by insurers is hiring in-house counsel as its own employees on a salary who have no incentive to engage in unnecessary shenanigans, but unfortunately, the salaries offered have not been tempting enough to attract top, effective legal talent.

Anyway, Jon, finally I'm also glad that you have found a way to remain honestly employed in tennis journalism and that you've never had to disgrace yourself by becoming an attorney at law.

*A 29-year-old lawyer dies and storms up to St. Peter in Heaven in a rage, insisting that it's all a mistake, that he's too young to die and that St. Peter has to send him back. "I'm only 29 years old," he expostulates, "It's ridiculous for me to die this young." St. Peter says nothing but calmly opens a drawer in his desk and pulls out a book that he studies for a while, after which he looks up at the lawyer and says, "According to this book, you're 85 years old." "What?" says the lawyer. "That's crazy! Look at me, I'm only 29—by the way, what book is that?" St. Peter replies, "It's the book of your Billable Hours."

Mailbag: 10 Storylines to Follow at Indian Wells 2018

A quick pre-Indian Wells Mailbag. First some housekeeping:

1) Tennis Channel has you covered at the BNP Paribas event. Brett Haber, Tracy Austin, James Blake and I will be doing the daily pregame show at 10 a.m. PT and then match overage begins.2) Petra Kvitova is our most recent podcast guest.3) We’ll have another guest later this week.4) Stick around till the end for a tremendous reader riff.

Both on Twitter and at a tennis brunch, we had a lively discussion about Roger Federer’s chances if he were to decide to play the French Open. It’s a fun thought exercise, in part because it’s so unlikely to happen. Some quick thoughts:

1) Again, I think we need to stress that this is hypothetical. Federer did not play on clay last year and is unlikely to change his philosophy in 2018. Yes, as someone committed to winning majors, it must be tempting. Yes, he’s won on clay before. Yes, he’s won three of the last four majors he’s entered. Yes, if Rafael Nadal is compromised, entering Roland Garros must be all the more tantalizing for Federer. But I don't see it.

2) If Federer were to enter, would he be the favorite? Not if Nadal is willing and able, of course. (And depending on the state of Djokovic’s body and head….) But Federer would be a real contender; and absent those two, the favorite. Federer has “only” won the French Open once, of course. But he’s reached the finals five times; he’s won Madrid six times; and he’s won more than 200 matches on clay….it’s not exactly a foreign substance.

3) What about the young guys, especially Dominic Thiem, a semifinalist two years running? I think this falls under “you have the win a Slam before you can be favored to win a Slam.” Federer vs. Thiem, in a best-of-five match? Amid the gravitas of a Slam? In front of a wildly partisan crowd? With so much context and subtext? I say that’s Federer, 60-40.

4) So why doesn’t Federer play Roland Garros again? Specifically, a few reasons: Clay is the surface that demands the most out of him physically. The Parisian weather—those damp, heavy days—must spook a 36-year-old man with back problems. Federer wouldn’t likely enter a Slam without any prep work so suddenly he’s entering tune-ups and his entire spring schedule would really be turned sideways. The proximity to Wimbledon means that a niggling injury suffered in Paris might not have time to heal. But the overall reason: Federer is at his most rational when designing his schedule. What rhythms are most conducive to prolonging my career and maximizing my chance at the biggest titles? Playing clay doesn’t fit here.

5) But let’s agree that a) it’s fun to consider b) it’s remarkable that we’re talking about a player—on his worse surface, closer to age 40 than to 30—and discussing this in earnest.

Onward…

Mailbag

Have a question or comment for Jon? Email him at jon_wertheim@yahoo.com or tweet him @jon_wertheim.

Jon, it's too bad that my favorite player, Rafael Nadal, won’t be at Indian Wells this year. But I will. Still so many good players and it’s such a fun time. What are some of their storylines you’ll be following?—Jean, Los Angeles

• Thanks for this question. Jean raises another existential tennis issue: pre-tournament news tends to be relentlessly negative, a litany of players who are not competing in a certain event and come in uncertain status. This is a challenge for the sport’s PR practitioners: how to generate more encouraging headlines to combat the inevitable withdrawal news?

Anyway, some of the storylines are obvious. Can Federer defend his title, especially with so many challenges sidelined? How does Serena look in her first event coming off maternity leave? But here are ten other Indian Wells storylines/questions off the top of my head:

1) Whither Novak Djokovic? He won this event in 2016. Then he won the French Open a few months later. And since then, it’s been tough sledding, as the cliché prone would say. Can his comeback start in the desert?

2) Petra Kvitova is back in the top ten and riding a two-tournament win streak. Have we moved beyond the comeback backstory to a place where we can talk about a player who could fill the vacuum?

3)Victoria Azarenka is another player who’s conquered the desert in recent year. Yet she’s played six matches in the last 20 months. What’s the state of her game?

4) Frances Tiafoe had a breakthrough week recently in Delray beating Juan Martin del Potro, Hyeon Chung and Denis Shapovalov to win the title. Can he build at this bigger event?

5) A year ago, Sloane Stephens came to Indian Wells in a wheelchair, still nursing a foot injury. She returns this year as….what? A recent Grand Slam champion, capable of winning the title, and also a player struggling to win matches. (Note her likely showdown against Azarenka.)

6) Simona Halep is back at No.1 thanks to the vagaries of the rankings. How does it fit her?

7) It was two years ago this week that Maria Sharapova tested positive for meldonium. She’s back but is she back? She’s north of 30 (age) and north of 40 (rankings) and, allegedly, less than fully healthy.

8) Ryan Harrison and Donald Young will both be present. Enough said.

9) Who is Nicolas Jarry and why have so many loyal readers from South America touted him as a player we need to discuss?

10) “Uncle” Larry Ellison has ponied up a $1 million bonus to any player who wins singles AND doubles. (Ironically, the defending women’s champ, Elena Vesnina, might be the most likely candidate.) Will this impact doubles draws? And if no player wins in 2018, can we roll over the bonus and play for $2 million in 2019?

Something I think many recreational players must wonder about from time to time (myself included) is how much energy do professional players save in a match as a result of not having to chase down balls after points? Now that we have technology to track players’ total movement during matches, has this ever been used to look at ballboy/girls? It would be fun to look at the total movement of ballkids on one half of the net for a match, which we could compare to player movement to at least get a rough idea of how much energy it takes to pick up your own balls.—Geoff Auckland, New Zealand

• Interesting. There are no ballkids, of course, in college tennis nor in lower level events. It would be interesting to learn how this impacts player exertion. On the one hand, you’re squandering extra energy chasing down wayward balls. On the other hand, the extra time between points required to accumulate all the balls might be an advantage to the players. You have a few extras second to recover physically and a few extra seconds to collect your thoughts.

On the topic of players and their rhythms between points….

I happen to take notice watching the Delray Beach Open doubles final, which was played in extreme heat, that the four competitors rarely if ever went to grab a towel between points. Some of these points were certainly just as strenuous and if not more so then when a singles player grabs his towel after almost every point (including aces and double faults).

This proves that it is many times unnecessary and just a time waster that slows the pace of play. Probably not, but maybe a new rule/way to limit the number of times a player can go to the towel between points per game? I watch old matches from not too long along players never went to the towel between points. Thoughts?—Thanks and continued success, Fish

• I’m with you. Our favorite is when there’s a double-fault and the returner takes a towel break. Dude, you literally did not swing, much less make contact, much less play a point. If you are sweating, you have really overhydrated.

Singles players sometimes mention that they towel off, less as a practical action than as part of their ritual. Fine, but that comes at the expense of viewer enjoyment, which is a problem. (Doubles players don’t get a total pass. Too often their Yalta-style strategic conferences between points seems excessive.)

Davis Cup will suffer a slow death unless the best players compete. It’s long, boring and the winners are often not the best players. The Fed Cup has earlier had the short one-week format (I coached the Norwegian team in 83 degrees in Zurich) and I think it is the best alternative. It is not the title, it’s the players. All honor to the ITF for seeing that this is a sinking ship. It will live, and survive, as long as the best players show up. I think the short format will be perfect for the players and also the fans. Too bad the Laver Cup has just been put out of business!!—Patrick Kramer

• I wouldn't bury the Laver Cup just quite yet. Different concepts, different vibes. And don’t underestimate the authority of Federer (and his commercial power) even X years from now, when he is retired. (And by “X,” we mean the Roman numeral for ten.)

As for the future of Davis Cup and this radical proposal, we’ll see. The success depends largely on which players are enticed to participate. But market forces are powerful motivators. And something had to be done. Now—in a battle to rival Federer/Nadal—we’ll see who prevails, the traditionalists or the mavericks. No question that the current proposal has its weaknesses and issues and logistical complications. But the current version of Davis Cup is so flawed, so tone-deaf to the current demands of the sport and, consequently, so lacking in currency…something had to be done.

I was listening to the 30-love podcast with Carl Bialik interviewing Cliff Richey and he discussed getting the "yips" with his backhand partly due to his unorthodox swing and how Arthur Ashe once experienced the same thing with his unique service motion. Once a particular stroke goes "off" perhaps it is harder to reestablish it if the stroke is unconventional. I know you don't have a crystal ball for predicting "yips" but what current tour players on the WTA or ATP have the most unorthodox yet effective strokes? I wonder about that gorgeous leaping Shapovalov backhand and whether it will place a lot of stress on his shoulder as he ages. Thanks Jon.—Ian S.

• This is a good one to crowd source. “Unorthodox” takes on a variety of definitions. The Nadal forehand is wildly unorthodox. Yet for 15 years it’s been terrifically effective, so perhaps it’s more conventional than we think. Nick Kyrgios’s entire mode of being is unconventional, at least to tennis. Serena Williams’ tennis upbringing is unconventional. Same for Federer, for that matter.

More conventionally unconventional, there’s the entire game of Monica Niculescu. (And Ons Jabeur if you really want to go down the rankings.) Pierre-Hugues Herbert serve. Alex Dolgopolov’s serve merits mention here, too. The Ernests Gulbis forehand defies physics and convention in equal measure. Can we discuss Marion Bartoli and her two-handed forehand now that she’s back? As a bonus, there’s Pablo Cuevas doing this.

Shots, Miscellany

• Octagon announced the signing of American tennis sensation, Frances Tiafoe, to a worldwide, exclusive marketing and management agreement. The 20-year-old will be represented by Octagon vice president, Kelly Wolf.

• Elina Svitolina has won her first Tie Break Tens tournament, following a thrilling battle with Shuai Zhang in the final at New York’s legendary sports venue, Madison Square Garden. Having seen off Venus Williams and CoCo Vandeweghe in the previous rounds of the new fast-paced, short-form tennis competition, Elina Svitolina dominated in all of her matches to take home the champion’s check of $250,000.

• The PowerShares Series, a competitive men's tennis circuit featuring some of the ATP's former top-ranked players, will return to Charleston on Saturday, April 7th at the Volvo Car Stadium. This year's line-up features Andy Roddick, Michael Chang, Tommy Haas and Mark Philippoussis.

• Five past champions, nine Americans and a trio of 21-and-under rising stars 22 highlight the initial entry list for the 2018 Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship which will be held at River Oaks Country Club April 7-15. The US Clay winner in four of the past five years—Steve Johnson (2017), Jack Sock (2015), Fernando Verdasco (2014) and John Isner (2013)—will be joined by 2007 US Clay winner Ivo Karlovic in the field. Johnson, Sock and Isner are among an American contingent that includes two-time finalist Sam Querrey, Tennys Sandgren, Ryan Harrison, Frances Tiafoe, Taylor Fritz and Donald Young.

Pierre Vaultier said about Djokovic: “When I am watching him play, his expressions and his intonation, I feel like I am watching myself.”

Vaultier also said that he was a fan of Djokovic and had always wanted to meet him. Djokovic responded by inviting Vaultier to the French Open: "Let's make it happen. See you at RG!"

• Joe S. has our reader riff this week:

As for Eugenie, I'm always glad to see plaintiffs cash in (I was a plaintiffs' whore myself when I was masquerading as an attorney at law). I'm also glad to see that you sure nailed it when you described litigation as a runaway train from which only the lawyers get rich. Litigation is a racket and a scandal with a lot of willing participants including the judges. Let me add a few thoughts to what you observed: Why wasn't the case settled immediately as it should have been—any fool could have seen from the get-go where it was going—? First, consider that it wasn't the USTA but rather its insurer that was the real party defending the suit. Then realize that lawyers for insurers get paid for the time they put in working on a case, "billable hours."* So, when an insurer's lawyer settles a case right away, he makes zilch. Therefore insurance-defense lawyers perfect the art of taking their insurer-clients down the garden path with promises like "We'll beat this" and/or "We'll save you money" and "Leave it to us." Having thus gulled their clients, these sharpie lawyers then spend years "churning the file" by fomenting phony disputes over discovery, hiring experts, taking depositions, filing and opposing motions that they themselves have made necessary, etc., etc., etc., blah, blah, blah. By the time the smoke has cleared a few years later, these lawyers are already into the insurer for a few hundred grand before the plaintiff has even seen a nickel. And, as if that's not bad enough for the insurer, then the plaintiff hits the insurer for a bonanza recovery by settlement or trial. Will it do the insurer any good to fire that law firm and get another afterwards? Of course not, any new law firm will do the same thing all over again in the next case. They're all whores. Their motto is "Please sue my client." One solution that has been tried by insurers is hiring in-house counsel as its own employees on a salary who have no incentive to engage in unnecessary shenanigans, but unfortunately, the salaries offered have not been tempting enough to attract top, effective legal talent.

Anyway, Jon, finally I'm also glad that you have found a way to remain honestly employed in tennis journalism and that you've never had to disgrace yourself by becoming an attorney at law.

*A 29-year-old lawyer dies and storms up to St. Peter in Heaven in a rage, insisting that it's all a mistake, that he's too young to die and that St. Peter has to send him back. "I'm only 29 years old," he expostulates, "It's ridiculous for me to die this young." St. Peter says nothing but calmly opens a drawer in his desk and pulls out a book that he studies for a while, after which he looks up at the lawyer and says, "According to this book, you're 85 years old." "What?" says the lawyer. "That's crazy! Look at me, I'm only 29—by the way, what book is that?" St. Peter replies, "It's the book of your Billable Hours."

Novak Djokovic becomes latest player to rejoin the pack at Indian Wells

As the biggest hard-court tournament of the spring, the upcoming event at Indian Wells is turning into a comeback mecca for tennis. Last night, Novak Djokovic became the latest big name to appear in the draw. Late on Monday night, the women’s draw confirmed the entries of Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka, who had not played a match on the tour since January and July 2017 respectively. Then it was the turn of the men, and of Djokovic. The 12-time slam champion did participate in the recent Australian Open, but his four matches there remain his only contribution to the tour since Wimbledon. He also needed a “small medical intervention” – in his own words – on his troublesome right elbow in February, which left him with bandaging all the way down to his hand. But Djokovic has been practising again in recent days and he will probably return to the fray at the weekend, depending on the schedule. He is the 10th seed and will thus enjoy a first-round bye, while two qualifiers fight for the right to face him. The lesson from Djokovic’s strong performances in Melbourne six weeks ago is that he doesn’t need much match-time to find his form. He looked commanding there on his way to the fourth round, before his painful elbow combined with an inspired performance from South Korea’s Hyeon Chung to undo him. Feels good to be outdoors in the sun and hitting the ball again. Day by day... #nevergiveup ☀️ pic.twitter.com/ccIqyKTm8v— Novak Djokovic (@DjokerNole) March 3, 2018 But while Djokovic may have declared himself fit to resume, Indian Wells is still suffering from a plethora of high-profile withdrawals on the men’s side. Rafael Nadal, Stan Wawrinka, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and David Goffin have all joined Andy Murray on the absent list. Kyle Edmund returns to the tour at Indian Wells Credit: Getty Images At least the new British No 1 Kyle Edmund appears ready to resume action after sitting out the last month of tournaments with a heavy bout of ’flu. Edmund, whose most recent match was his Australian Open semi-final against Marin Cilic, is seeded in Indian Wells for the first time, at No 21 in the list. He will thus receive a first-round bye, followed by a challenging opening match against either Denis Istomin or Peter Gojowczyk.

Novak Djokovic becomes latest player to rejoin the pack at Indian Wells

As the biggest hard-court tournament of the spring, the upcoming event at Indian Wells is turning into a comeback mecca for tennis. Last night, Novak Djokovic became the latest big name to appear in the draw. Late on Monday night, the women’s draw confirmed the entries of Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka, who had not played a match on the tour since January and July 2017 respectively. Then it was the turn of the men, and of Djokovic. The 12-time slam champion did participate in the recent Australian Open, but his four matches there remain his only contribution to the tour since Wimbledon. He also needed a “small medical intervention” – in his own words – on his troublesome right elbow in February, which left him with bandaging all the way down to his hand. But Djokovic has been practising again in recent days and he will probably return to the fray at the weekend, depending on the schedule. He is the 10th seed and will thus enjoy a first-round bye, while two qualifiers fight for the right to face him. The lesson from Djokovic’s strong performances in Melbourne six weeks ago is that he doesn’t need much match-time to find his form. He looked commanding there on his way to the fourth round, before his painful elbow combined with an inspired performance from South Korea’s Hyeon Chung to undo him. Feels good to be outdoors in the sun and hitting the ball again. Day by day... #nevergiveup ☀️ pic.twitter.com/ccIqyKTm8v— Novak Djokovic (@DjokerNole) March 3, 2018 But while Djokovic may have declared himself fit to resume, Indian Wells is still suffering from a plethora of high-profile withdrawals on the men’s side. Rafael Nadal, Stan Wawrinka, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and David Goffin have all joined Andy Murray on the absent list. Kyle Edmund returns to the tour at Indian Wells Credit: Getty Images At least the new British No 1 Kyle Edmund appears ready to resume action after sitting out the last month of tournaments with a heavy bout of ’flu. Edmund, whose most recent match was his Australian Open semi-final against Marin Cilic, is seeded in Indian Wells for the first time, at No 21 in the list. He will thus receive a first-round bye, followed by a challenging opening match against either Denis Istomin or Peter Gojowczyk.

Injured Rafael Nadal will miss Indian Wells, Miami events

FILE - In this Jan. 23, 2018, file photo,Spain's Rafael Nadal reacts during his quarterfinal loss to Croatia's Marin Cilic at the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia. Rafael Nadal will miss the upcoming Indian Wells and Miami tournaments because of a lingering right hip injury. Nadal made the announcement Friday, March 2, 2018, on Facebook. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)

Injured Rafael Nadal will miss Indian Wells, Miami events

FILE - In this Jan. 23, 2018, file photo, Spain's Rafael Nadal answers questions at a press conference after retiring injured from his quarterfinal against Croatia's Marin Cilic at the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia. Rafael Nadal will miss the upcoming Indian Wells and Miami tournaments because of a lingering right hip injury. Nadal made the announcement Friday, March 2, 2018, on Facebook. (AP Photo/Mark Baker, File)

Injured Rafael Nadal will miss Indian Wells, Miami events

FILE - In this March 4, 2017 file photo, Spain's Rafael Nadal serves the ball during the final of the Mexican Tennis Open in Acapulco, Mexico. Nadal announced on Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2018 that he will be missing this year's Acapulco Open claiming an injury. (AP Photo/Enric Marti, File)

Hip injury forces Rafael Nadal to withdraw from Indian Wells and Miami Open

Hip injury forces Rafael Nadal to withdraw from Indian Wells and Miami Open

Hip injury forces Rafael Nadal to withdraw from Indian Wells and Miami Open

Hip injury forces Rafael Nadal to withdraw from Indian Wells and Miami Open

Rafael Nadal withdraws from Indian Wells, Miami Open

A hip injury will prevent Rafael Nadal, the World No. 2, from playing at Indian Wells, and he also will miss the Miami Open.

With tennis’s Independent Review Panel expected to report on the match-fixing crisis before the end of the month, the body that runs most of the world’s professional tournaments announced today that it is reinforcing its safeguards against corruption. The International Tennis Federation is responsible for organising all events below ATP and WTA level, which involve more than 50,000 matches played by a semi-professional workforce of up to 14,000 players. Betting alerts on these low-level matches have caused serious concern for tennis’s administrators, and led to the commission of Adam Lewis QC to lead the IRP investigation more than two years ago. Today the ITF moved to pre-empt some of the recommendations in the report by announcing a new partnership with Sportradar, the sports-data specialist who already supply live scores from those low-level tournaments to the ITF and to betting sites. At the moment, the Tennis Integrity Unit does its best to monitor world markets via voluntary agreements with around 25 bookmakers. Sportradar will be running an electronic fraud detection system – which is already in use in football and 16 other sports – across 550 bookmakers, a vastly more ambitious operation. Why Nadal must borrow a page from the Federer playbook The investment will not be cheap, as Sportradar say they will have to hire more than a dozen extra staff to cover the vast extent of the ITF Pro Circuit. But it is likely that Lewis will recommend the introduction of stronger integrity safeguards when he delivers his verdict in a few weeks’ time, and this looks like a case of the ITF getting in early. The spotlight may then shift to the ATP and WTA tours, which use IMG to provide their live data. As usual in tennis, there is a lack of co-ordination between different governing bodies which all do their own thing. This has been a busy week for the ITF, which has already announced controversial plans to reorganise the world group of the Davis Cup from a home-and-away competition into a week-long tournament in November. While the new concept has outraged traditionalists, it is backed by the offer of billions of dollars of investment from Kosmos, an investment group fronted by the Barcelona footballer Gerard Pique – money which could help fund initiatives like this one.

Even as Boris Becker was lamenting Andy Murray’s absence from the world stage on Wednesday, an update arrived from the Murray camp. The British No 1 plans to start hitting balls again towards the end of this month, with a view to a comeback in May or June. Becker made his comments while attending the Laureus Awards in Monaco, where he presented Roger Federer with the trophy for sportsman of the year. “Tennis needs him; tennis is not the same without Andy Murray,” said Becker, a three-time Wimbledon champion. “He got this problem and he stopped when he was the No 1 player in the world. It’s the last thing you want to happen. “It’s a serious injury. I’m not his doctor, I can’t give you details of what the surgery was or how many surgeries he had, but what I hear is he is contemplating coming back on the grass because, obviously, it’s a little easier for the hip.” The grass-court season, which starts in earnest this year with Queen’s on June 18, has been Murray’s stated target since he had an arthroscopy on his right hip on Jan 8. According to sources in his management group, 77, he has been busy in the gym at the All England Club for some weeks, mixing sessions on the versaclimber (a machine that simulates climbing a ladder) with the exercise bike and free weights. Pilates has also been used to maintain his flexibility and stability. Andy Murray hip medical opinion Murray now plans to return to on-court training in three or four weeks’ time, perhaps in a warmer climate such as Florida, where he owns a second home on the Miami seafront. There is even a feeling that he might aim to play some competitive clay-court tennis in May, but it should be remembered that clay has traditionally caused him more physical aches and pains than other surfaces. Speaking of players with hip problems, Rafael Nadal suffered a recurrence on Wednesday of the same hip problem that forced him to withdraw from his Australian Open quarter-final against Marin Cilic in January. As a result, he was forced to withdraw on the eve of his first scheduled match at the Mexico Open in Acapulco, telling fans in a Facebook post that “This morning we went to the hospital and did an MRI. We’ll have to do more tests to see the extent of the injury.”

Mailbag: Breaking Down the Details of the Proposed Davis Cup Changes

Right to the questions...

Have a question or comment for Jon? Email him at jon_wertheim@yahoo.com or tweet him @jon_wertheim.

I was curious what you think about the new Davis Cup format? Does this breathe new life into Davis Cup or does it hasten its demise?—Matt D., New York

• Spare a thought, first, for Frances Tiafoe. The 20-year-old American won his first title, beating Juan Martin del Potro en route to taking Delray. Great result. Great story. Great kid….and then, whoosh, the news cycle rotated to this radical Davis Cup change and Tiafoe scarcely got his moment.

Anyway, yes, the big news this week: plans for “the transformation” of Davis Cup. Before we explore the particulars, some credit is due to the International Tennis Federation. After years (decades?) of stubbornly refusing to change and (willfully) blinding themselves to the obvious signs that the Davis Cup was losing relevance and prestige—not least among the players themselves—the organization finally offered a sweeping alternative. Dave Haggerty, the new ITF head, all but promised this. And he appears to have delivered.

While this is a mere proposal and must be voted through in August—which is no given—the fact that the ITF has acted with uncharacteristic conviction is, in and of itself, encouraging. Crassly, it's also encouraging that tennis can attract this kind of capital investment. More on the financials in a second.

The actual proposal for a one-week shoot-em-out can be picked apart under cross-examination. Are the same players, who gripe—not wrongly—about tennis’ grueling schedule demands, willing to converge on Singapore in November? (By the way, does it really make sense to go to Asia to debut an event like this when sport’s nerve center is Europe?) Then again, given the demand for so many courts, where the heck DO you host this thing, especially that time of the year?

More questions….Can you really fit an 18-team event featuring more than 100 players into a week? Do you lose the essential, home-and-away flavor of Davis Cup, when, say, Canada plays Slovenia ….in Singapore? What does this do to the World Team Cup, which was supposed to be held in January and put to Board vote in late March? For that matter, what does this do to the Laver Cup?

Money, however, talks. And in this case it screams. Spearheaded by Barcelona football player Gerard Pique, a group is underwriting this event for, reportedly, $3 billion over 25 years. That’s money akin to starting a new Grand Slam.

That kind of money does a lot of things. A) It induces players. Even tired, physically beat-up players. B) It leaves money for marketing. Part of the Davis Cup’s current is that the fluid schedule makes it tough to promote. That won’t be the case with a date and location that won’t move. C) Some of that money can fanned to federations, which get so much funding under the current model. D) It makes ticket sales all but irrelevant.

Again, this is a proposal, not a done deal. And, again, this model—radical by any measure—is not without its flaws. But the old was so deeply flawed and outdated, rendering the event less relevant which each year, that it was “innovate or die.” Fortunately, finally, the ITF chose the former.

Speaking of silly money….

Jon: Now that the case has been settled, what do you think of Genie Bouchard’s against the USTA?—Carl, Calif.

• For those who missed it, after more than two years of saber rattling, Genie Bouchard’s suit against the USTA went to trial. (Credit to Dan Kaplan for the excellent, if bemused, coverage.) After an unfavorable ruling on the negligence phase, the USTA settled before damages. How much did Bouchard get? I’ve heard two different figures, but I say with confidence that it was considerably more than the $3.3 million Novak Djokovic and Flavia Pennetta received that year for winning the entire tournament.

This was less a case of Bouchard’s avarice or the USTA’s negligence than it was an indictment of the U.S. legal system. This should have been settled days after the tournament. But this had all the ingredients for wasteful litigation. One the one side, you had a celebrity plaintiff, a flamboyant lawyer taking the case on contingency. Where was the incentive to settle? Bouchard wasn’t paying accrued legal fees, just a percentage of the eventual settlement. And the lawyer was getting free exposure every time the case was referenced. Bouchard’s ranking may have gone into free fall, but this cut both ways. Was it all the more absurd that a player ranked outside the top 100 was demanding millions? Or did her plummeting ranking support her claim that her career suffered on account of her fall?

The USTA has a long track record of settling suits; but in this case, damages sought were so preposterous—presupposing that Bouchard would have won the tournament and cashed in millions in bonuses if only she had not fallen—that it could not have capitulated. (It would also have set a terrible precedent. If every player injured on site knew they could get an eight-figure payout, you can imagine the potential liability.)

So what happens? Instead of quick and routine settlement, neither side is incentivized to put a crowbar in the runaway train that is litigation. Soon millions have been spent and years have elapsed. Soon it’s “in for a dime, in for a dollar,” and both sides have expended so many resources that you may as well roll the dice with a jury. Everyone loses but the lawyers.

Lost in all this: what impact has this—by “this” I don't mean a head injury, but distracting, protracted litigation—have on Bouchard’s career? A former top 10 player, she is declining a rate that defies quantum physics. If settling this suit enables her to reclaim her career, she truly wins.

Thanks for your Mailbag answer to the Young/Harrison controversy. I haven't seen anyone else in the mainstream media put the incident in context. Harrison has a history of confrontation with fellow players in the last six months and known "cultural insensitively" (Re: defending Sandgren, etc). While Young (the accuser) gets vilified for a lack of evidence, a "fiery" bully remains supported by the PR tennis machine.I think this is the very definition of racism.—Jason

• Whoa. It’s not a question of support or non-support. (And the “tennis PR machine” has been in the shop since the 1980s.) It’s a question of a charge being made—an intensely serious charge—without supporting evidence. Again, Harrison may have plenty to answer for. But in this specific situation, there’s nothing—at least not as now—to corroborate that the accuser had a basis for his accusation.

Quick note: I play in a tennis league with a ball boy who worked the Harrison-Young match in Long Island. He reported that he and others working the match heard every word and there was no racial slurs/language from Harrison. The umpire quickly brought them all together and those working the match were uniform in this view. While I was disappointed to learn of Harrison's Sandgren defense and other confrontations, and can't imagine what Donald Young's life experience has been in a homogenous sport, the facts do matter even in this difficult context. —J.

• Thanks. You raise two points that, while conflicting, we would do well to consider. (And come pretty close to mirroring my views.) Consider Donald Young’s life experiences for a moment. Before insisting that this was a fabricated account or a hoax, leave open the possibility that Young’s interpretations and intuitions might have been more subtle. And it’s easy to see how Harrison’s history would have made Young especially sensitive and prone to take offense.

At the time same, facts and evidence matter. Young leveled a charge that was not supported by evidence. And—just as problematic—did not make himself available or accountable after his provocative tweet.

Thanks for sharing that heartwarming Dick Enberg story last week. I never had the pleasure of meeting the man, but it seems we should all strive to have half the character that man had. My question is regarding one record that Federer still has to chase: Jimmy Connors' 109 career titles. With Federer winning his 97th last weekend, there's been much debate over whether he can break this particular record. Your thoughts?—Matt Marolf, Long Island City, N.Y.

• I would submit that this is one of those records that is not quite “apples to apples.” Different playing tours, different times, different playing conditions and schedule demands. Big difference physically between playing—with gut strings and not polyester—this spring schedule, as Connors did in, say, 1979: Birmingham (Alabama, not UK), Philadelphia, Rancho Mirage, Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Memphis, New Orleans, Tulsa, Las Vegas, Dallas.

That’s 10 events without having to get on an international fight, without more than three hours time difference. (True, you could turn around and argue these guys were not flying privately nor traveling with their private nutritionists and physios….”Intergenerational comparisons: fun, but probably pointless!”)

I was surprised to see no mention of Petra Kvitova in this week's Mailbag. This time last year, she was recovering from what very well could have been a career-ending injury sustained under horrific circumstances. This week, she won her second title in a row; returned to the top 10; beat the likes of Wozniacki, Muguruza and Svitolina; and is on a 13-match unbeaten streak dating back to the Australian Open. C'mon Jon—that deserves at least as much attention as a discussion of the ideal tennis body, no? —Andrew Beck

• Indeed she does. Great story. And, of course, the next person to say something uncharitable about Kvitova will be the first. She may not have been in last week’s Mailbag, but she will be appearing as our next guest on the SI/Tennis Channel Podcast.

I think it’s funny when people consider David Ferrer an insult as a upside comparison to the their favorite young, up-and-coming player. Sure he hasn’t won a Slam, but the dude has won 27 titles. Not many active 30-and-under players will win that many titles. And Ferrer won those titles in an era when titles have been hard to come by.—James B.

• James sent this after Ferrer beat Andrey Rublev in Acapulco. No argument here. Ferrer is 35, grinding away, and STILL in the top 40. We say it all time: fans—wholly justifiably—adore Federer and Nadal and Serena. But we’re talking one-in-a-billion talents. (Actually, that still probably shortchanges it.) If you are a junior player and want a player to emulate, take a long, hard look at Ferrer. He’s 160 lbs. He was kissed by neither the talent gods nor the genetic deities. And by virtue of sheer hard work and persistence, he has turned in a long, honorable, and financially remunerative career.)

Why didn’t you ask Harrison what he said?! It was left hanging there, begging to be asked and you wouldn’t do it. Disappointing!—Phyllis

• Fair enough. My esteemed colleague, Jamie Lisanti, razzed me for that as well. (Do the kids still razz? Does anyone still use that word?) I was under the impression that Harrison had addressed that already. According to him, he cursed and made unflattering references to Young’s height, but he did not say anything racial in nature. But, yes, that would have been a logical question to pose.

In light of the Young-Harrison confrontation why wouldn't the tours consider placing an audio recorder on every umpire's chair? It's not like these would be as expensive as adding Hawk-Eye to every court and it would clear up any disputes like this. Thanks.—Blake Redabaugh, Denver, Colo.

• I think it’s less a function of cost so much as it's the potentially chilling effect that audio might have on candid exchanges between the chair and the players. Would the players want this? I imagine their union would want to consider the pros and cons before…oh, wait, never mind.

Shots, Miscellany

• I suspect many of you have seen this by now but check out this Federer image:

• Press releasing, Part 1: This past weekend, tennis stars Serena and Venus Williams, along with Serena’s husband and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, world-renowned fitness personality and Insanity creator Shaun T, and retired NFL Pro Bowl offensive lineman Bryant McKinnie competed at the Spartan South Florida Sprint Weekend for a noble cause. The group ran this event to help bring justice and awareness to the homicide of 21-year-old University Park, IL native, Jalen Talbert. This was Serena’s second Spartan Race of the season, competing in the Spartan SoCal Super and Sprint Weekend on Jan. 27-28. Commenting on an Instagram story about her tennis skirt wearing sister, Serena joked that it would be the first and last time you’d see her sister Venus in pants.

• Press releasing, Part 2: Tennis ace Kyle Edmund has become a new ambassador for Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity (GOSH Charity), and paid a special visit to patients and families at the hospital to mark the start of his support. The British tennis star, who last month reached the Australian Open semifinal, has taken on the charity role after being moved by the story of GOSH patient James ‘Jimmy’ Shaw, who died in 2016. James’ parents Pete and Emily Shaw have raised £170,000 for GOSH Charity in James’ memory since they set up the ‘Little Jimmy Brighter Future Fund’ in 2016. Kyle will support this special fund as part of his role as a GOSH Charity ambassador, and met children recovering from surgery at GOSH on his first visit.

• Press releasing, Part 3: Former Wimbledon and U.S. Open champion Lleyton Hewitt and former world No. 2 and 2000 Olympic silver medalist Tommy Haas will join the PowerShares Series champions tennis circuit in 2018, InsideOut Sports & Entertainment, the organizers of the PowerShares Series, announced today. The PowerShares Series is the North American tennis circuit for champion tennis players over the age of 30. The series of one-night tournaments will feature 10 events in 2018. The full schedule of tournaments will be announced March 1.

• Fifty years since the Olympic Games in Mexico City, NBC Olympics will bring viewers back to that tumultuous and politically-charged year with a 90-minute documentary entitled 1968. Four-time Olympic gold medalist and 23-time Grand Slam singles champion Serena Williams narrates the film, which makes its broadcast television debut Sunday, Feb. 25, at 4:10 p.m. ET on NBC.

• The ATP has announced the 2017 ATP Challenger Tournaments of the Year, with players voting two of their favorite Challenger Tour stops in Germany (Braunschweig and Heilbronn) and one in Canada (Vancouver) from the 155 tournaments in 41 countries staged last year.

• The ITF today announced the appointments of Rennae Stubbs of Australia and Andre Sa of Brazil as ITF player relations consultants. Their role, as part of a new Player Relations department in the ITF, will be to strengthen the ITF’s ties with players, coaches, agents, the tours and tournament organizers.

• The USTA Foundation (USTAF), the national charitable arm of the United States Tennis Association (USTA), today announced that it raised a record $9 million in 2017 through a variety of fundraising efforts. These funds will be used to support National Junior Tennis and Learning (NJTL) programs nationwide through multiple initiatives and activities, including NJTL Excellence Teams, STEM and ACE curriculums, programming and capacity-building grants, and college scholarships. In 2017, hundreds of tennis and education programs and students were awarded more than $3.3 million in grants and scholarships.

• This week’s LLS: Ansel Elgort and Sascha Zverev

Mailbag: Breaking Down the Details of the Proposed Davis Cup Changes

Right to the questions...

Have a question or comment for Jon? Email him at jon_wertheim@yahoo.com or tweet him @jon_wertheim.

I was curious what you think about the new Davis Cup format? Does this breathe new life into Davis Cup or does it hasten its demise?—Matt D., New York

• Spare a thought, first, for Frances Tiafoe. The 20-year-old American won his first title, beating Juan Martin del Potro en route to taking Delray. Great result. Great story. Great kid….and then, whoosh, the news cycle rotated to this radical Davis Cup change and Tiafoe scarcely got his moment.

Anyway, yes, the big news this week: plans for “the transformation” of Davis Cup. Before we explore the particulars, some credit is due to the International Tennis Federation. After years (decades?) of stubbornly refusing to change and (willfully) blinding themselves to the obvious signs that the Davis Cup was losing relevance and prestige—not least among the players themselves—the organization finally offered a sweeping alternative. Dave Haggerty, the new ITF head, all but promised this. And he appears to have delivered.

While this is a mere proposal and must be voted through in August—which is no given—the fact that the ITF has acted with uncharacteristic conviction is, in and of itself, encouraging. Crassly, it's also encouraging that tennis can attract this kind of capital investment. More on the financials in a second.

The actual proposal for a one-week shoot-em-out can be picked apart under cross-examination. Are the same players, who gripe—not wrongly—about tennis’ grueling schedule demands, willing to converge on Singapore in November? (By the way, does it really make sense to go to Asia to debut an event like this when sport’s nerve center is Europe?) Then again, given the demand for so many courts, where the heck DO you host this thing, especially that time of the year?

More questions….Can you really fit an 18-team event featuring more than 100 players into a week? Do you lose the essential, home-and-away flavor of Davis Cup, when, say, Canada plays Slovenia ….in Singapore? What does this do to the World Team Cup, which was supposed to be held in January and put to Board vote in late March? For that matter, what does this do to the Laver Cup?

Money, however, talks. And in this case it screams. Spearheaded by Barcelona football player Gerard Pique, a group is underwriting this event for, reportedly, $3 billion over 25 years. That’s money akin to starting a new Grand Slam.

That kind of money does a lot of things. A) It induces players. Even tired, physically beat-up players. B) It leaves money for marketing. Part of the Davis Cup’s current is that the fluid schedule makes it tough to promote. That won’t be the case with a date and location that won’t move. C) Some of that money can fanned to federations, which get so much funding under the current model. D) It makes ticket sales all but irrelevant.

Again, this is a proposal, not a done deal. And, again, this model—radical by any measure—is not without its flaws. But the old was so deeply flawed and outdated, rendering the event less relevant which each year, that it was “innovate or die.” Fortunately, finally, the ITF chose the former.

Speaking of silly money….

Jon: Now that the case has been settled, what do you think of Genie Bouchard’s against the USTA?—Carl, Calif.

• For those who missed it, after more than two years of saber rattling, Genie Bouchard’s suit against the USTA went to trial. (Credit to Dan Kaplan for the excellent, if bemused, coverage.) After an unfavorable ruling on the negligence phase, the USTA settled before damages. How much did Bouchard get? I’ve heard two different figures, but I say with confidence that it was considerably more than the $3.3 million Novak Djokovic and Flavia Pennetta received that year for winning the entire tournament.

This was less a case of Bouchard’s avarice or the USTA’s negligence than it was an indictment of the U.S. legal system. This should have been settled days after the tournament. But this had all the ingredients for wasteful litigation. One the one side, you had a celebrity plaintiff, a flamboyant lawyer taking the case on contingency. Where was the incentive to settle? Bouchard wasn’t paying accrued legal fees, just a percentage of the eventual settlement. And the lawyer was getting free exposure every time the case was referenced. Bouchard’s ranking may have gone into free fall, but this cut both ways. Was it all the more absurd that a player ranked outside the top 100 was demanding millions? Or did her plummeting ranking support her claim that her career suffered on account of her fall?

The USTA has a long track record of settling suits; but in this case, damages sought were so preposterous—presupposing that Bouchard would have won the tournament and cashed in millions in bonuses if only she had not fallen—that it could not have capitulated. (It would also have set a terrible precedent. If every player injured on site knew they could get an eight-figure payout, you can imagine the potential liability.)

So what happens? Instead of quick and routine settlement, neither side is incentivized to put a crowbar in the runaway train that is litigation. Soon millions have been spent and years have elapsed. Soon it’s “in for a dime, in for a dollar,” and both sides have expended so many resources that you may as well roll the dice with a jury. Everyone loses but the lawyers.

Lost in all this: what impact has this—by “this” I don't mean a head injury, but distracting, protracted litigation—have on Bouchard’s career? A former top 10 player, she is declining a rate that defies quantum physics. If settling this suit enables her to reclaim her career, she truly wins.

Thanks for your Mailbag answer to the Young/Harrison controversy. I haven't seen anyone else in the mainstream media put the incident in context. Harrison has a history of confrontation with fellow players in the last six months and known "cultural insensitively" (Re: defending Sandgren, etc). While Young (the accuser) gets vilified for a lack of evidence, a "fiery" bully remains supported by the PR tennis machine.I think this is the very definition of racism.—Jason

• Whoa. It’s not a question of support or non-support. (And the “tennis PR machine” has been in the shop since the 1980s.) It’s a question of a charge being made—an intensely serious charge—without supporting evidence. Again, Harrison may have plenty to answer for. But in this specific situation, there’s nothing—at least not as now—to corroborate that the accuser had a basis for his accusation.

Quick note: I play in a tennis league with a ball boy who worked the Harrison-Young match in Long Island. He reported that he and others working the match heard every word and there was no racial slurs/language from Harrison. The umpire quickly brought them all together and those working the match were uniform in this view. While I was disappointed to learn of Harrison's Sandgren defense and other confrontations, and can't imagine what Donald Young's life experience has been in a homogenous sport, the facts do matter even in this difficult context. —J.

• Thanks. You raise two points that, while conflicting, we would do well to consider. (And come pretty close to mirroring my views.) Consider Donald Young’s life experiences for a moment. Before insisting that this was a fabricated account or a hoax, leave open the possibility that Young’s interpretations and intuitions might have been more subtle. And it’s easy to see how Harrison’s history would have made Young especially sensitive and prone to take offense.

At the time same, facts and evidence matter. Young leveled a charge that was not supported by evidence. And—just as problematic—did not make himself available or accountable after his provocative tweet.

Thanks for sharing that heartwarming Dick Enberg story last week. I never had the pleasure of meeting the man, but it seems we should all strive to have half the character that man had. My question is regarding one record that Federer still has to chase: Jimmy Connors' 109 career titles. With Federer winning his 97th last weekend, there's been much debate over whether he can break this particular record. Your thoughts?—Matt Marolf, Long Island City, N.Y.

• I would submit that this is one of those records that is not quite “apples to apples.” Different playing tours, different times, different playing conditions and schedule demands. Big difference physically between playing—with gut strings and not polyester—this spring schedule, as Connors did in, say, 1979: Birmingham (Alabama, not UK), Philadelphia, Rancho Mirage, Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Memphis, New Orleans, Tulsa, Las Vegas, Dallas.

That’s 10 events without having to get on an international fight, without more than three hours time difference. (True, you could turn around and argue these guys were not flying privately nor traveling with their private nutritionists and physios….”Intergenerational comparisons: fun, but probably pointless!”)

I was surprised to see no mention of Petra Kvitova in this week's Mailbag. This time last year, she was recovering from what very well could have been a career-ending injury sustained under horrific circumstances. This week, she won her second title in a row; returned to the top 10; beat the likes of Wozniacki, Muguruza and Svitolina; and is on a 13-match unbeaten streak dating back to the Australian Open. C'mon Jon—that deserves at least as much attention as a discussion of the ideal tennis body, no? —Andrew Beck

• Indeed she does. Great story. And, of course, the next person to say something uncharitable about Kvitova will be the first. She may not have been in last week’s Mailbag, but she will be appearing as our next guest on the SI/Tennis Channel Podcast.

I think it’s funny when people consider David Ferrer an insult as a upside comparison to the their favorite young, up-and-coming player. Sure he hasn’t won a Slam, but the dude has won 27 titles. Not many active 30-and-under players will win that many titles. And Ferrer won those titles in an era when titles have been hard to come by.—James B.

• James sent this after Ferrer beat Andrey Rublev in Acapulco. No argument here. Ferrer is 35, grinding away, and STILL in the top 40. We say it all time: fans—wholly justifiably—adore Federer and Nadal and Serena. But we’re talking one-in-a-billion talents. (Actually, that still probably shortchanges it.) If you are a junior player and want a player to emulate, take a long, hard look at Ferrer. He’s 160 lbs. He was kissed by neither the talent gods nor the genetic deities. And by virtue of sheer hard work and persistence, he has turned in a long, honorable, and financially remunerative career.)

Why didn’t you ask Harrison what he said?! It was left hanging there, begging to be asked and you wouldn’t do it. Disappointing!—Phyllis

• Fair enough. My esteemed colleague, Jamie Lisanti, razzed me for that as well. (Do the kids still razz? Does anyone still use that word?) I was under the impression that Harrison had addressed that already. According to him, he cursed and made unflattering references to Young’s height, but he did not say anything racial in nature. But, yes, that would have been a logical question to pose.

In light of the Young-Harrison confrontation why wouldn't the tours consider placing an audio recorder on every umpire's chair? It's not like these would be as expensive as adding Hawk-Eye to every court and it would clear up any disputes like this. Thanks.—Blake Redabaugh, Denver, Colo.

• I think it’s less a function of cost so much as it's the potentially chilling effect that audio might have on candid exchanges between the chair and the players. Would the players want this? I imagine their union would want to consider the pros and cons before…oh, wait, never mind.

Shots, Miscellany

• I suspect many of you have seen this by now but check out this Federer image:

• Press releasing, Part 1: This past weekend, tennis stars Serena and Venus Williams, along with Serena’s husband and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, world-renowned fitness personality and Insanity creator Shaun T, and retired NFL Pro Bowl offensive lineman Bryant McKinnie competed at the Spartan South Florida Sprint Weekend for a noble cause. The group ran this event to help bring justice and awareness to the homicide of 21-year-old University Park, IL native, Jalen Talbert. This was Serena’s second Spartan Race of the season, competing in the Spartan SoCal Super and Sprint Weekend on Jan. 27-28. Commenting on an Instagram story about her tennis skirt wearing sister, Serena joked that it would be the first and last time you’d see her sister Venus in pants.

• Press releasing, Part 2: Tennis ace Kyle Edmund has become a new ambassador for Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity (GOSH Charity), and paid a special visit to patients and families at the hospital to mark the start of his support. The British tennis star, who last month reached the Australian Open semifinal, has taken on the charity role after being moved by the story of GOSH patient James ‘Jimmy’ Shaw, who died in 2016. James’ parents Pete and Emily Shaw have raised £170,000 for GOSH Charity in James’ memory since they set up the ‘Little Jimmy Brighter Future Fund’ in 2016. Kyle will support this special fund as part of his role as a GOSH Charity ambassador, and met children recovering from surgery at GOSH on his first visit.

• Press releasing, Part 3: Former Wimbledon and U.S. Open champion Lleyton Hewitt and former world No. 2 and 2000 Olympic silver medalist Tommy Haas will join the PowerShares Series champions tennis circuit in 2018, InsideOut Sports & Entertainment, the organizers of the PowerShares Series, announced today. The PowerShares Series is the North American tennis circuit for champion tennis players over the age of 30. The series of one-night tournaments will feature 10 events in 2018. The full schedule of tournaments will be announced March 1.

• Fifty years since the Olympic Games in Mexico City, NBC Olympics will bring viewers back to that tumultuous and politically-charged year with a 90-minute documentary entitled 1968. Four-time Olympic gold medalist and 23-time Grand Slam singles champion Serena Williams narrates the film, which makes its broadcast television debut Sunday, Feb. 25, at 4:10 p.m. ET on NBC.

• The ATP has announced the 2017 ATP Challenger Tournaments of the Year, with players voting two of their favorite Challenger Tour stops in Germany (Braunschweig and Heilbronn) and one in Canada (Vancouver) from the 155 tournaments in 41 countries staged last year.

• The ITF today announced the appointments of Rennae Stubbs of Australia and Andre Sa of Brazil as ITF player relations consultants. Their role, as part of a new Player Relations department in the ITF, will be to strengthen the ITF’s ties with players, coaches, agents, the tours and tournament organizers.

• The USTA Foundation (USTAF), the national charitable arm of the United States Tennis Association (USTA), today announced that it raised a record $9 million in 2017 through a variety of fundraising efforts. These funds will be used to support National Junior Tennis and Learning (NJTL) programs nationwide through multiple initiatives and activities, including NJTL Excellence Teams, STEM and ACE curriculums, programming and capacity-building grants, and college scholarships. In 2017, hundreds of tennis and education programs and students were awarded more than $3.3 million in grants and scholarships.

• This week’s LLS: Ansel Elgort and Sascha Zverev

Mailbag: Breaking Down the Details of the Proposed Davis Cup Changes

Right to the questions...

Have a question or comment for Jon? Email him at jon_wertheim@yahoo.com or tweet him @jon_wertheim.

I was curious what you think about the new Davis Cup format? Does this breathe new life into Davis Cup or does it hasten its demise?—Matt D., New York

• Spare a thought, first, for Frances Tiafoe. The 20-year-old American won his first title, beating Juan Martin del Potro en route to taking Delray. Great result. Great story. Great kid….and then, whoosh, the news cycle rotated to this radical Davis Cup change and Tiafoe scarcely got his moment.

Anyway, yes, the big news this week: plans for “the transformation” of Davis Cup. Before we explore the particulars, some credit is due to the International Tennis Federation. After years (decades?) of stubbornly refusing to change and (willfully) blinding themselves to the obvious signs that the Davis Cup was losing relevance and prestige—not least among the players themselves—the organization finally offered a sweeping alternative. Dave Haggerty, the new ITF head, all but promised this. And he appears to have delivered.

While this is a mere proposal and must be voted through in August—which is no given—the fact that the ITF has acted with uncharacteristic conviction is, in and of itself, encouraging. Crassly, it's also encouraging that tennis can attract this kind of capital investment. More on the financials in a second.

The actual proposal for a one-week shoot-em-out can be picked apart under cross-examination. Are the same players, who gripe—not wrongly—about tennis’ grueling schedule demands, willing to converge on Singapore in November? (By the way, does it really make sense to go to Asia to debut an event like this when sport’s nerve center is Europe?) Then again, given the demand for so many courts, where the heck DO you host this thing, especially that time of the year?

More questions….Can you really fit an 18-team event featuring more than 100 players into a week? Do you lose the essential, home-and-away flavor of Davis Cup, when, say, Canada plays Slovenia ….in Singapore? What does this do to the World Team Cup, which was supposed to be held in January and put to Board vote in late March? For that matter, what does this do to the Laver Cup?

Money, however, talks. And in this case it screams. Spearheaded by Barcelona football player Gerard Pique, a group is underwriting this event for, reportedly, $3 billion over 25 years. That’s money akin to starting a new Grand Slam.

That kind of money does a lot of things. A) It induces players. Even tired, physically beat-up players. B) It leaves money for marketing. Part of the Davis Cup’s current is that the fluid schedule makes it tough to promote. That won’t be the case with a date and location that won’t move. C) Some of that money can fanned to federations, which get so much funding under the current model. D) It makes ticket sales all but irrelevant.

Again, this is a proposal, not a done deal. And, again, this model—radical by any measure—is not without its flaws. But the old was so deeply flawed and outdated, rendering the event less relevant which each year, that it was “innovate or die.” Fortunately, finally, the ITF chose the former.

Speaking of silly money….

Jon: Now that the case has been settled, what do you think of Genie Bouchard’s against the USTA?—Carl, Calif.

• For those who missed it, after more than two years of saber rattling, Genie Bouchard’s suit against the USTA went to trial. (Credit to Dan Kaplan for the excellent, if bemused, coverage.) After an unfavorable ruling on the negligence phase, the USTA settled before damages. How much did Bouchard get? I’ve heard two different figures, but I say with confidence that it was considerably more than the $3.3 million Novak Djokovic and Flavia Pennetta received that year for winning the entire tournament.

This was less a case of Bouchard’s avarice or the USTA’s negligence than it was an indictment of the U.S. legal system. This should have been settled days after the tournament. But this had all the ingredients for wasteful litigation. One the one side, you had a celebrity plaintiff, a flamboyant lawyer taking the case on contingency. Where was the incentive to settle? Bouchard wasn’t paying accrued legal fees, just a percentage of the eventual settlement. And the lawyer was getting free exposure every time the case was referenced. Bouchard’s ranking may have gone into free fall, but this cut both ways. Was it all the more absurd that a player ranked outside the top 100 was demanding millions? Or did her plummeting ranking support her claim that her career suffered on account of her fall?

The USTA has a long track record of settling suits; but in this case, damages sought were so preposterous—presupposing that Bouchard would have won the tournament and cashed in millions in bonuses if only she had not fallen—that it could not have capitulated. (It would also have set a terrible precedent. If every player injured on site knew they could get an eight-figure payout, you can imagine the potential liability.)

So what happens? Instead of quick and routine settlement, neither side is incentivized to put a crowbar in the runaway train that is litigation. Soon millions have been spent and years have elapsed. Soon it’s “in for a dime, in for a dollar,” and both sides have expended so many resources that you may as well roll the dice with a jury. Everyone loses but the lawyers.

Lost in all this: what impact has this—by “this” I don't mean a head injury, but distracting, protracted litigation—have on Bouchard’s career? A former top 10 player, she is declining a rate that defies quantum physics. If settling this suit enables her to reclaim her career, she truly wins.

Thanks for your Mailbag answer to the Young/Harrison controversy. I haven't seen anyone else in the mainstream media put the incident in context. Harrison has a history of confrontation with fellow players in the last six months and known "cultural insensitively" (Re: defending Sandgren, etc). While Young (the accuser) gets vilified for a lack of evidence, a "fiery" bully remains supported by the PR tennis machine.I think this is the very definition of racism.—Jason

• Whoa. It’s not a question of support or non-support. (And the “tennis PR machine” has been in the shop since the 1980s.) It’s a question of a charge being made—an intensely serious charge—without supporting evidence. Again, Harrison may have plenty to answer for. But in this specific situation, there’s nothing—at least not as now—to corroborate that the accuser had a basis for his accusation.

Quick note: I play in a tennis league with a ball boy who worked the Harrison-Young match in Long Island. He reported that he and others working the match heard every word and there was no racial slurs/language from Harrison. The umpire quickly brought them all together and those working the match were uniform in this view. While I was disappointed to learn of Harrison's Sandgren defense and other confrontations, and can't imagine what Donald Young's life experience has been in a homogenous sport, the facts do matter even in this difficult context. —J.

• Thanks. You raise two points that, while conflicting, we would do well to consider. (And come pretty close to mirroring my views.) Consider Donald Young’s life experiences for a moment. Before insisting that this was a fabricated account or a hoax, leave open the possibility that Young’s interpretations and intuitions might have been more subtle. And it’s easy to see how Harrison’s history would have made Young especially sensitive and prone to take offense.

At the time same, facts and evidence matter. Young leveled a charge that was not supported by evidence. And—just as problematic—did not make himself available or accountable after his provocative tweet.

Thanks for sharing that heartwarming Dick Enberg story last week. I never had the pleasure of meeting the man, but it seems we should all strive to have half the character that man had. My question is regarding one record that Federer still has to chase: Jimmy Connors' 109 career titles. With Federer winning his 97th last weekend, there's been much debate over whether he can break this particular record. Your thoughts?—Matt Marolf, Long Island City, N.Y.

• I would submit that this is one of those records that is not quite “apples to apples.” Different playing tours, different times, different playing conditions and schedule demands. Big difference physically between playing—with gut strings and not polyester—this spring schedule, as Connors did in, say, 1979: Birmingham (Alabama, not UK), Philadelphia, Rancho Mirage, Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Memphis, New Orleans, Tulsa, Las Vegas, Dallas.

That’s 10 events without having to get on an international fight, without more than three hours time difference. (True, you could turn around and argue these guys were not flying privately nor traveling with their private nutritionists and physios….”Intergenerational comparisons: fun, but probably pointless!”)

I was surprised to see no mention of Petra Kvitova in this week's Mailbag. This time last year, she was recovering from what very well could have been a career-ending injury sustained under horrific circumstances. This week, she won her second title in a row; returned to the top 10; beat the likes of Wozniacki, Muguruza and Svitolina; and is on a 13-match unbeaten streak dating back to the Australian Open. C'mon Jon—that deserves at least as much attention as a discussion of the ideal tennis body, no? —Andrew Beck

• Indeed she does. Great story. And, of course, the next person to say something uncharitable about Kvitova will be the first. She may not have been in last week’s Mailbag, but she will be appearing as our next guest on the SI/Tennis Channel Podcast.

I think it’s funny when people consider David Ferrer an insult as a upside comparison to the their favorite young, up-and-coming player. Sure he hasn’t won a Slam, but the dude has won 27 titles. Not many active 30-and-under players will win that many titles. And Ferrer won those titles in an era when titles have been hard to come by.—James B.

• James sent this after Ferrer beat Andrey Rublev in Acapulco. No argument here. Ferrer is 35, grinding away, and STILL in the top 40. We say it all time: fans—wholly justifiably—adore Federer and Nadal and Serena. But we’re talking one-in-a-billion talents. (Actually, that still probably shortchanges it.) If you are a junior player and want a player to emulate, take a long, hard look at Ferrer. He’s 160 lbs. He was kissed by neither the talent gods nor the genetic deities. And by virtue of sheer hard work and persistence, he has turned in a long, honorable, and financially remunerative career.)

Why didn’t you ask Harrison what he said?! It was left hanging there, begging to be asked and you wouldn’t do it. Disappointing!—Phyllis

• Fair enough. My esteemed colleague, Jamie Lisanti, razzed me for that as well. (Do the kids still razz? Does anyone still use that word?) I was under the impression that Harrison had addressed that already. According to him, he cursed and made unflattering references to Young’s height, but he did not say anything racial in nature. But, yes, that would have been a logical question to pose.

In light of the Young-Harrison confrontation why wouldn't the tours consider placing an audio recorder on every umpire's chair? It's not like these would be as expensive as adding Hawk-Eye to every court and it would clear up any disputes like this. Thanks.—Blake Redabaugh, Denver, Colo.

• I think it’s less a function of cost so much as it's the potentially chilling effect that audio might have on candid exchanges between the chair and the players. Would the players want this? I imagine their union would want to consider the pros and cons before…oh, wait, never mind.

Shots, Miscellany

• I suspect many of you have seen this by now but check out this Federer image:

• Press releasing, Part 1: This past weekend, tennis stars Serena and Venus Williams, along with Serena’s husband and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, world-renowned fitness personality and Insanity creator Shaun T, and retired NFL Pro Bowl offensive lineman Bryant McKinnie competed at the Spartan South Florida Sprint Weekend for a noble cause. The group ran this event to help bring justice and awareness to the homicide of 21-year-old University Park, IL native, Jalen Talbert. This was Serena’s second Spartan Race of the season, competing in the Spartan SoCal Super and Sprint Weekend on Jan. 27-28. Commenting on an Instagram story about her tennis skirt wearing sister, Serena joked that it would be the first and last time you’d see her sister Venus in pants.

• Press releasing, Part 2: Tennis ace Kyle Edmund has become a new ambassador for Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity (GOSH Charity), and paid a special visit to patients and families at the hospital to mark the start of his support. The British tennis star, who last month reached the Australian Open semifinal, has taken on the charity role after being moved by the story of GOSH patient James ‘Jimmy’ Shaw, who died in 2016. James’ parents Pete and Emily Shaw have raised £170,000 for GOSH Charity in James’ memory since they set up the ‘Little Jimmy Brighter Future Fund’ in 2016. Kyle will support this special fund as part of his role as a GOSH Charity ambassador, and met children recovering from surgery at GOSH on his first visit.

• Press releasing, Part 3: Former Wimbledon and U.S. Open champion Lleyton Hewitt and former world No. 2 and 2000 Olympic silver medalist Tommy Haas will join the PowerShares Series champions tennis circuit in 2018, InsideOut Sports & Entertainment, the organizers of the PowerShares Series, announced today. The PowerShares Series is the North American tennis circuit for champion tennis players over the age of 30. The series of one-night tournaments will feature 10 events in 2018. The full schedule of tournaments will be announced March 1.

• Fifty years since the Olympic Games in Mexico City, NBC Olympics will bring viewers back to that tumultuous and politically-charged year with a 90-minute documentary entitled 1968. Four-time Olympic gold medalist and 23-time Grand Slam singles champion Serena Williams narrates the film, which makes its broadcast television debut Sunday, Feb. 25, at 4:10 p.m. ET on NBC.

• The ATP has announced the 2017 ATP Challenger Tournaments of the Year, with players voting two of their favorite Challenger Tour stops in Germany (Braunschweig and Heilbronn) and one in Canada (Vancouver) from the 155 tournaments in 41 countries staged last year.

• The ITF today announced the appointments of Rennae Stubbs of Australia and Andre Sa of Brazil as ITF player relations consultants. Their role, as part of a new Player Relations department in the ITF, will be to strengthen the ITF’s ties with players, coaches, agents, the tours and tournament organizers.

• The USTA Foundation (USTAF), the national charitable arm of the United States Tennis Association (USTA), today announced that it raised a record $9 million in 2017 through a variety of fundraising efforts. These funds will be used to support National Junior Tennis and Learning (NJTL) programs nationwide through multiple initiatives and activities, including NJTL Excellence Teams, STEM and ACE curriculums, programming and capacity-building grants, and college scholarships. In 2017, hundreds of tennis and education programs and students were awarded more than $3.3 million in grants and scholarships.

• This week’s LLS: Ansel Elgort and Sascha Zverev

Nadal made me a better player - Federer

Playing through the same era as Rafael Nadal has been of huge benefit to Roger Federer's career, according to the Swiss.

Nadal made me a better player - Federer

Roger Federer praised rival Rafael Nadal, saying that he never would have risen to the heights that he has without the Spaniard.

Nadal made me a better player - Federer

Roger Federer praised rival Rafael Nadal, saying that he never would have risen to the heights that he has without the Spaniard.

Nadal made me a better player - Federer

Roger Federer praised rival Rafael Nadal, saying that he never would have risen to the heights that he has without the Spaniard.